Thousand Miles
by your royal highness
Summary: Sequel to 'Mistakes'. Two months after Tony accepted the promotion, he's in San Diego, with his new team. When a case with Gibbs' team is connected to one in San Diego, what will happen when the two partners are reunited? TIVA
1. San Diego Team

Tony DiNozzo walked out of the elevator, coffee in his right hand, straining to hear the conversations that were going on in the squadroom that morning. As he entered the bullpen, he heard a chorus of 'Morning boss' ringing through the bullpen as he made his way towards his desk.

"Lynn," He acknowledged, "It does make you look fat. Sorry." he grinned, and her mouth dropped open, "Grab your gear!" He announced, "We've got a dead one."

He grabbed his SIG and badge out of his desk drawer and then shouted orders as his team geared up, "Garter. Call Dr. Smitts. Get him ready for autopsy, tell him to meet us Coronado. Davis, Lewis, gas the truck." He passed the keys to Lewis, who caught them easily, "You're driving." he said as he made his way out of the bullpen and towards the elevator.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Morning team." McGee called as he walked into the bullpen. It had been at least two months since he had been shot, and he was feeling better than ever. Ziva on the other hand was feeling a thousand times worse. She felt as if she had driven Tony away with all of her peeking into his personal life and all as well as breaking up with him, which, by the way, she still regrets greatly.

"Still not speaking, are we, Ziva?" McGee questioned. Since Tony had left she had barely said anything to anyone, much less Good Morning or any other sort of friendly greeting. Well she had attempted to, at first, putting up her shields so that no one could see her pain, but then she just gradually became quieter, and the team had noticed it, whereas she hadn't. She just looked up at him and gave him a small, half smile. She was about to open her mouth to say good morning back when she was cut off.

"Well she better start speaking." Gibbs said as he walked into the bullpen, coffee in hand, "Grab your gear. We've got a dead one."

McGee and Ziva both got up to gear up, holstering their badges and their guns before Ziva swung her backpack over her shoulder. As she looked up she stared at Tony's empty desk. McGee appeared in front of her, blocking her view. She let her eyes falter to the ground for a moment. He tentatively placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to shudder.

"It's okay, Ziva." He said, and she just nodded.

"I understand." She quietly said as she stared at him before she started out of the bullpen.

McGee sighed as he followed her. He stood next to her, in front of Gibbs in the lift as Gibbs shouted into his ear, "Keating! You coming or what?"

"Sorry boss!" Keating called as he jumped into the elevator. Ziva scoffed and moved over to the side of the wall.

"I expect you to talk today, Ziva." Gibbs whispered into her ear.

"I do talk!" She exclaimed, and Gibbs just stared at her with his famous 'icy stare'. She sighed, defeated. There was no sense arguing, "Yes, Gibbs."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lewis stopped the truck and then got out.

Marilynn, or Lynn Garter got out next. She was a rather pretty woman with blonde hair that was naturally straight but pulled up into a ponytail for this occasion. Over the past couple of months Tony had learned that she had a huge soft sport for gummy worms and strawberry smoothies. Odd combination, he knew, but she loved it.

The person driving the car, Scott Lewis, got out. He was about the same height as Tony, medium build, with jet black hair that was sometimes a little scraggly. Especially right now. Tony didn't think that he'd had a haircut in months. Scott was their techno-geek, just like McGee except there was less of a geeky side of him.

And then the last person to get out was Aaron Davis. Tony's favorite of the bunch. He, like Tony, was a movie obsessed freak who wanted nothing more than to joke around and flirt with hot women. However, unlike Tony, he actually flirted with women, he didn't just stare at them or wish they were his partner (though Tony knew that Aaron had a thing for Lynn, I mean, a person with blind eyes could see that!) He was his drinking buddy. A medium build, similar hair to Tony's, except a little lighter brown, which he didn't apply products to in the morning, and a genuine smile that lit up the room were his attributes. He was also Tony's drinking buddy. But he never got drunk, and he was the only one that was allowed to call him Tony instead of boss…and the only one who knew about Ziva.

"Lynn. Bag and tag." Tony announced, "Lewis. Pictures and sketches. Davis. Witness statements. Over there."

"On it boss!" Lynn called as she went to the back of the van with Lewis to get the equipment out.

Davis approached him as he went over to go and walk to the sheriff, "Hey, Tony, you okay?"

"I've got a crime to deal with, _Davis. _Get off my tail. Witness statements. We'll talk later." just by using his last name, he knew he had to get lost. Pulling out his notepad and a pen, he started towards the witness, who apparently was a young woman named Julie Lancaster, who was on the jog when she tripped over a stick in the road…which turned out to be part of a leg, which was sticking out of a bush.

Lewis and Garter were walking towards the crime scene, pulling on their gloves as Lewis loaded the camera and got it ready, "Hey, Scott, you notice anything…different about boss?"

"What about him?" he questioned, "He's acting like he has every other day."

"Yeah, that's the problem." She said, laughing a little as if he said something stupid. It was Scott who turned and looked at her like she said something stupid this time.

"Huh? What's wrong with him? He seems like a nice enough guy…when he decides to be."

"That's just the problem!"

"You're not making any sense, Lynn."

She scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Uh-uh, _you're _not making any sense."

"He just seems like the kind of person that would be really funny and stuff. You know? He has that dazzling smile…and that beautiful hair…" She sighed as she stared at her boss, who was talking to the sheriff, "And such a cute little round ass…"

Scott's mouth dropped open, "Lynn!" he scolded, "What the hell are you talking about?! That's our _boss_! Not one of your stupid little playboys you bring home everyday."

"Not _everyday_, Scott." She said, "Now shut up and take the pictures before Smitty gets here."

"Okay every _other _day, sorry."

"You done bagging and tagging, Lynn?" Tony asked as he approached the scene. She shook her head as she stared at the empty evidence bags in her hands.

"Uh…I…"

"Well then you better hurry up, then dontcha? Don't speak!" He said dramatically, and the rest of the team turned and looked strangely at him, "What?" he asked, laughing a little bit, "Bullets Over Broadway. Woody Allen? John Cusack, Dianne West?" They all just looked at him before he sighed and then changed the subject, "Where's Smitts?"

"Smitty's not here yet." Lynn chirped up, "Late."

"Again." Scott and Aaron said at the same time.

"Finished witness statements, Tony." Aaron called as he walked up to the boss, "Name's Julie Lancaster. Said she was taking her normal morning run through the park and then she…."

"Tripped over what she thought was a root but ended up being a leg. Yeah, I got it. What else? Any other witness's?"

"No, Tony, sorry." He heard a truck pull up and then stop, "But Smitts and his assistant Bo are here."

"Hey, Bandit, Snowman! Eastbound and down, get over here!" Tony called, "You're late! Again!"

"We're coming!" ME Dr. Cletus Smitts called as he and his assistant, Bo, got out of the truck. Bo got the bag.

"Time of death, Doctor?"

"We're not even over there!"

"I don't care! Hurry up!"

"Look," Cletus rolled his eyes, "_Tony, _we had to do something before we got here."

"What?" he grinned, "Bring Coors beer over the east Mississippi border?"

Cletus turned on him, angry now, "If I hear one more Smoky and the Bandit quote from you, I will seriously _kill you_!" Tony laughed and then got serious.

"Shut up and do what you do, Smitts."

Smitts raised an eyebrow and then laughed an angry laugh, "You seem to be full of heat today. What happened? You and your girlfriend break up or something?"

And that got Tony angry. Very angry. He straightened up, "I'll meet you back in HQ. You have fifteen minutes to get back here. All of you. Extra paperwork tonight. And I don't care if the damn case is closed by then! You're all staying late!" He spat before he turned around and walked towards the government issued car he drove here. He sped off, the tires screeching the pavement as Lynn groaned and then promptly punched Smitts in the arm.

"You idiot! What the hell did you do that for?"

"Well…" Scott said, from where he was still kneeling by the ground, looking off in the direction that Tony's car disappeared in, "We know one thing's for sure."

"What?"

"He used to have a girlfriend." He shrugged.

"Well since we have to stay late…" Lynn grinned, "Let's go through his desk, you know, see if he has any pictures of her anywhere!"

"Uh…" Aaron butt in, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"And why not?" Lynn demanded, "He goes through _our _desks! He used my deodorant without asking once! I have full permission to go through his desk looking for something. He does it to all of us. I saw him going through Scott's desk once."

"What?" Scott asked, amazed, "When?"

"Two weeks ago." She promptly said.

"Wait." Scott stopped, turning to look up at Aaron, "You knew he had a girlfriend."

"Well…"

"Of course he did!" Lynn exclaimed, "He always goes out to get drinks with the boss after cases."

"So you know." Scott said, more of a question than a statement. He stood up to face Aaron.

"Let's just finish this." Aaron said, "We've already wasted at least 5 minutes talking about this."

"Fine." Lynn said, walking threateningly towards her partner, pointing a finger into Aaron's face. She was close as she nearly whispered, "But don't think this conversation is over, Aaron. We will find out. Don't you worry." She said before she started to bag some more items.

"Come on, Bo, get the gurney, we'll get TOD when we get back to Autopsy."

"Right away, Snowman!" He grinned, and Smitts just glared at him as he bolted back towards the truck.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Just a little introductory chapter, showing the people that Tony has been working with. Don't worry. The team from Washington DC's NCIS will be back a lot more in the next chapter. And I know that Ziva may seem...out of character-ish, but I know that when you're going through a really bad time, you tend not to talk as much without even realizing it. That's pretty much what's happening with Ziva. She'll talk. In the next couple of chapters, trust me. She just isn't realizing what she's doing. Make sense? AND you know how in 'Mistakes' Tony got really upset with Ziva reading his medical records? Well you'll find out that it's not the plague that he's worried about her reading...it's something else. Tony's got a deep, dark secret that Gibbs doesn't even know about! Mwahaha! Review and tell me what you think! **


	2. Cocaine

"Update." Gibbs said as he walked into the bullpen. Ziva stood up first, walking over to McGee's desk to grab the clicker out of his hands.

"Her name's Lieutenant Lindsey Evans." She said, "Caucasian female. 29. Was getting ready for her second tour in Iraq before she was killed. Single. Never married."

"Relatives?"

"Yes. Her mother, Carly Evans, 51. Lives in Arlington, VA."

"She know?"

"Not that I am aware of."

"Unless she killed her." Gibbs said.

"Yeah, but boss why would she kill her own daughter?" McGee asked, and Gibbs just stared at him.

"I don't know. That's your job. Go. You and David. Go. Get her. Bring her back here." They both looked at each other for a moment before Gibbs barked, "Now!" And then they were out of there.

"Sir?" Keating asked from where he got up from his fifth desk, "What do you want me to do?"

Gibbs just stared at him, "You look into her bank records." He said as his phone rang, "Yeah, Gibbs…..be right there, Duck." He hung up the phone and then grabbed his coffee as he started out of the bullpen, "You go and check on Abby!" He shouted, "See what she's got and then report back to me!"

Keating sighed, "Yes, boss."

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Update, Lynn!" Tony called as he entered the bullpen.

"Petty Officer Sarah Taylor. 27 years old, Caucasian female, single, the whole kit and caboodle. Has one living relative, an Aunt named Stacy Giddings. Lives just outside of San Diego."

Tony nodded and then turned, "Lewis?"

"Checked her medical records as well as her bank records," He said, getting up to the plasma and pressing a button on the clicker, "Looks like she's been making some pretty hefty payments every two months." Tony's eyes widened.

"Where?"

"Some guy named Daniel Roberts."

"Run background research." Tony demanded, and he nodded.

"On it, boss." He said as he took his seat the computer.

"Aaron!"

"Glad you saved me for last, boss."

"It better be a good reason." He agreed.

Aaron stood up, "I've got her Aunt in custody."

"Where?"

"Conference room." Tony grinned and then pointed to his teammates, "Nice work, team!" before he started out of the bullpen and towards the conference room.

Lynn rolled her eyes, "Aaron!" She cried, "Why do you always have to do that?"

"Do what?"

"Suck up to the boss!" She moaned, and then looked at the desk next to her, "But…" She grinned as she stood up and slyly moved towards his desk, "Let's see what this girlfriend of his looks like."

"Hey!" Aaron stood up, "Don't go through his stuff!" She stopped and looked up at him.

"Or what?" She asked, laughing a little, "You're gonna tell on me?" She asked, feigning that she was scared.

"Yes." Aaron said in a matter-of-fact voice, "But what about rule 12?"

She scoffed and rolled her eyes, "What _about _rule 12?"

"You know, rule twelve." Aaron said, "Never question the boss about his personal life."

She scoffed again, "Rules are just suggestions, nimrod. And besides. I'm not questioning him. I'm just searching. Now can't you just let me search for photos or at least find out her name?"

"If I tell you her name…" Aaron started, "Will you not look through Tony's desk?"

This caused Lynn to stand up straight as she walked towards him. Scott did the same, "Yes. Do tell."

"Fine." He sighed and then looked around, ready for the boss to come around the corner at any moment to save him.

Lynn punched him in the arm, "Aaron! Tell me!"

"Yeah, tell us Aaron!" Scott demanded.

"Fine. Her name's Ziva."

"Ziva what?" She prompted.

"I didn't say I'd tell you her last name." He said, starting back towards his desk, "Now get back to work before boss comes back."

"Ziva…" She grinned, "Ziiivvvaaa…Ziva and Tony sitting in a tree…"

Aaron just groaned, he was screwed.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Jethro!" Ducky called as he walked into autopsy, "Just in time!"

"You just called me, Duck."

"I know." He grinned, "But I have something for you. While Abby's running the tox screen on the blood from this young ladies body…"

"Lindsey Evans."

"Yes, Lindsey Evans, I cut open her body and found…this…" He pulled out a bloody, semi-hard substance that had white showing through, "From her lung."

"What is it?" He questioned.

"This, my dear Jethro, is cocaine."

"Cocaine? So our Lieutenant was a user? She overdosed?"

"Well then I found remnants in her stomach as well."

"She swallowed it?" He questioned, wishing that Ducky would explain this so that it was clearer to him.

"Yes, but that's not it."

"What?"

"I found a pin point stuck in her neck." He pointed to it and Jethro bent down to see it, "See, right there, between the two cervical bones."

"She was poked?"

"Yes. And it seems that she was forced to eat the cocaine." He moved to her mouth, opening it up a little, revealing the gums, "You see the slashes on the inside of her mouth? That's where the killer shoved the cocaine it, forced her to swallow it. The death was slow and painful, Jethro."

"Well what about the pin point thingy?"

"You'd have to talk to Abby about that when the tox screen comes back on the blood. Which should be…" Ducky started but was cut off by the ringing of Gibbs' cell. He opened it up and put it to his ear.

"Yeah, Gibbs….Be right there." He hung up, "Now." He said before he started towards the door, "Thanks Duck."

"Jethro, just a minute, please." He called, stopping Gibbs in the doorway. He turned slightly, "How's she doing?" He questioned, and he shrugged his shoulders.

"She's talking today." He said before he left autopsy, leaving Ducky in peace.

He moved over to the body and stared down into the women's closed eyes, "I bet you have never loved someone as much as our young Ziva has. Poor girl. Nevertheless, I will find out what happened to you. Do not worry."

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Stacy Giddings?" Tony asked as he entered the conference room. She stood up and ran over to him, shaking his hand eagerly.

"Yes, that's me. Is she okay? Is my niece okay?" She questioned, and Tony sighed.

"I think it would be best if you sat down."

Her face fell, "She's not okay, is she?" Tony sighed.

"No. No she's not. She's dead. Murdered." Stacy collapsed into the chair, tears burning down her face, "I am sorry for you loss." He acknowledged.

"How'd she die?" She questioned.

"I don't know."

"Cocaine?"

"Huh?" Tony asked, confused, "She took cocaine?"

"Oops. I shouldn't have said that. She wanted me to keep it a secret. That and her lesbian qualities."

"She was lesbian?"

"Yes." She scoffed, "When I found out I almost died. She never told her mom or anyone else. They were both addicted to cocaine."

"Do you know the name of her lesbian lover?"

"Yes." She nodded, sniffing a couple of tears away, "Lindsey Evans."

**Okay so I know that I said that Gibbs' team was going to San Diego, but I think I'm gonna change it, where Tony's team goes to DC. Anyways, someway they two teams are getting together. So review and I promise there will be more excitement next chapter! (Like campfires!) Review!**


	3. MTAC

**So I'm bored. And I want something to do. So I'm writing this chapter! So enjoy! And I hope that you like it! I'm having fun writing it, as you can tell, I can't stop! Haha Enjoy!**

"How long do you think Gibbs is going to make her wait there?" Keating asked from where he stood in observation with McGee and Ziva.

"Five minutes." McGee said.

"No, about eleven seconds. Twenty bucks." Ziva responded, from where she sat leaning up against the glass.

"Eleven seconds?" He asked, amazed.

"Now about eight." She grinned, "Deal?"

"Deal." They shook.

"One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi, four Mississippi, five Mississippi, six Mississippi, seven Mississippi, eight Mississippi…" And the door opened to interrogation, and Gibbs walked in. Ziva smirked and McGee and Keating both sighed as they handed her twenty bucks. She grinned as she put them in her pocket.

"Carly Evans." Gibbs said as he opened up the file, "You aware that your daughter is dead?"

"Do you think I'd be here if I didn't? I'm not just being dragged in custody by Feds just for fun." She scoffed, and Gibbs smirked.

"Ah. I see. It's hard losing a daughter."

"And how would you know?"

"It's happened to me." He shrugged his shoulder, and Gibbs watched as her expression softened, "You live with the pain for a while before it eventually moves to the back of your mind and you don't think about it all the time. But I'm sure that your memory of your daughter will be stronger. Found out she was addicted to cocaine."

"Yeah, I knew she was addicted. Her and her stupid girlfriend."

"Girlfriend?"

"Yeah, that's right, she was a lesbo. So what? I have to live with my daughter's obsession and fascination with women."

"Anyone feel the urge to…murder her?"

"Lindsey didn't have any enemies. Though I'm sure her girlfriend is pretty upset with her."

"Why?"

"Well her girlfriend moved out to California a couple of weeks ago to find a condo that they could live in. She wanted her to come out to help her pick out a house but I wanted her to stay with me." She started to tear up, "Do you realize how tough it is to have a daughter who won't be able to reproduce because she's in love with a women?"

"So you weren't comfortable with your daughter dating a woman?"

"No. I wasn't. At all." She wiped a tear away, "I was planning her wedding since she was five. _With a __man. _I never expected all of this. Any of this."

"So you killed her." He said, simply, and her eyes met his.

"I would never kill my own daughter! I was disappointed in her decisions in life, I was, but I would never kill her."

"Who would?"

"Probably either the woman she was dating or that slum drug dealer of hers." She placed her head in her hands, "She was so screwed up. I couldn't control her."

"I need a name."

"I don't know the drug dealer's name. But I know her lover's name."

"Name." Gibbs repeated, not wanting to get angry with Carly.

"S-Sarah Taylor." She managed to choke out, "She lives in California now."

"Where?"

"San Diego."

In observation, Ziva's eyes snapped to McGee's as her heart started to accelerate. She couldn't help but let the one word she hadn't said in about two months slip out of her mouth, "Tony."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Keating. Background information on Sarah Taylor. Find out if she had any contacts with this drug dealer. Ziva. I want you to help Keating. McGee, with me." Gibbs looked up to see Vance staring down into the bullpen. Vance nodded and then headed into MTAC, where Gibbs and McGee would soon follow.

"Hey, Ziva?" Keating asked, and Ziva snapped her eyes up to meet his. Once he realized that she wasn't going to say anything, he started to talk again, "Um…what's going on?"

"We're going through Sarah Taylor's records to find…" Keating's computer started to beep and Ziva furrowed her eyebrows together as she stood up and walked towards the fifth desk. She stared down at the computer screen.

"Uh…she's….uh…"

"Dead." Ziva finished, standing up straight as she looked up at MTAC, "How long?"

"Her death was just filed a couple of hours ago. She apparently died twenty eight hours ago."

"We must inform Gibbs." She determined as she started towards MTAC.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Lewis! I need info on a…zzzzz…." He looked down at his sticky note, "Lindsey Evans."

"On it, boss!" he exclaimed, and, across the bullpen, Lynn shot Aaron a mysterious look. Aaron gulped.

"There something you'd like to share with the class, Lynn?" Tony asked, and she snapped her eyes up to her boss'.

"Uh…I was just wondering…"

"Why you're not on task, right Lynn?" Aaron cut in, and Tony turned to look at his friend.

"Fine. Whatever. Yeah." Lynn spat, sticking her tongue out at Aaron.

"Here, we go, boss, Lieutenant Lindsey Evans. She's Caucasian female. 29. Single. Never married. One tour of Iraq."

"Any living relatives?"

"Yeah, Carly Evans…51."

"Pick her up." Tony demanded, cutting him off.

"Uh…boss?" Tony turned around to face Scott.

"What?" he demanded.

"She kinda…lives in Arlington."

"Arlington?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, Virginia, you know…"

"I know!" he snapped, "Fine. Forget about it." Scott's computer started to beep.

"Uh…boss?"

"What now?" He groaned, turning sharply on his heel to face his computer geek.

"Lindsey Evans is dead."

"Seriously?" Tony groaned, "Why does this always happen to me?" He muttered to himself, causing his team to give each other concerned looks, "How long? How did she die?"

"Uh…it says she died about thirteen hours ago. Murdered."

Tony stood in the middle of the bullpen, thinking through his options, his hands on his hips, his lips pursed together, staring down at the ground. He was trying to figure it out. His prime suspect was dead, murdered, and his other suspect, his aunt, was completely innocent. She had an airtight alibi; she was at her daughter's dance recital. There were at least fifty witness' for that. Finally, he decided what he was going to do, "Campfire!" He announced, walking to his desk as he pulled his chair around and pulled it into the middle of the bullpen. The other there scooted their chairs up as well till they were all in a circle, "What are our options?" He asked.

"Well," Scott spoke up first, "Sarah's lover, Lindsey, her only living relative is her mother, Carly Evans, who is in Arlington."

"So we either go to Arlington…" Lynn supplied.

"Or we work with what we got." Aaron finished.

"Which is nothing." Scott added at the end.

"No, we have something. Snowman said that she was killed with an overdose of cocaine. And in the blood test, Valerie said that the little prick Snowman found on her neck was used by a needle that injected cobra venom into her system weakening her," Tony said, "So we know what killed her."

"But we don't know who."

"Who's working the case for Lieutenant Evans?" Tony questioned Lewis, who looked down at his notepad.

"NCIS." Tony ran his hand down his face, resting it at his chin.

"Which team?"

He moved back to his computer, pressed a couple of buttons, and then returned, "Agent Leroy Jethro…." He started, but then all of a sudden, Tony stood up so quickly his chair flew back as he nearly bolted out of the room after muttering 'shit' under his breath.

They all looked at each other with confused expressions on their faces.

"Umm…he didn't even say 'End campfire.'" Scott said.

"Something is definitely bugging the boss." Lynn agreed.

"You know." Scott turned to Aaron.

"Why do you always assume that I know?" He demanded, and Lynn just stared at him.

"You know more about him than any of us. Spill." Lynn demanded, and he sighed.

"Because he used to work for NCIS in DC before he was transferred here."

"So?" She shrugged, "What's the big deal?"

"His old boss was Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. That was his old team, Lynn."

Her eyes went wide as she and Scott shared a look, "Oh." was all that escaped her mouth as they all slowly retreated back to their desks.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"We're all clear, Agent Gibbs. Ready to put you through."

Gibbs nodded and gave the signal to start the transmission. Tony's face appeared on the MTAC screen.

Gibbs gave a small smile, "Nice to see you again, DiNozzo."

"Nice to see you too boss. And McGoo…you look as fat as you did before I left. Eating some more of those probie snacks, are we?"

McGee just smiled, "It's nice to see you too, Tony."

"DiNozzo." Gibbs interrupted, "The case?"

"Sarah Taylor's dead." Tony announced, "Killed by an overdose of cocaine as well as an injection of cobra venom…"

"In the neck. I know."

"Using that famous gut still, are we?" Tony asked, grinning as he nodded his head at the screen, "I see."

"No. Ducky did the autopsy and Abby did the tox screen for the blood. They were killed the same way, DiNozzo."

"Ah." Tony said, "I see. But boss, how is that possible? They're more than six hundred miles away from each other!"

"I know that. We think that whoever killed Lindsey had an accomplice who killed Sarah so there was no talking about it."

"You have Carly in custody?" Gibbs just stared at him, "Right. Stupid question. You wouldn't be talking to me if you didn't. Right." There was a small moment of silence, "What now?"

Gibbs just smirked, "You tell me…boss."

"Haha, that's just funny, Gibbs. No really. What now?"

He shrugged, "Well I guess it's about time you come home. I mean, it looks like we're working together again." Tony grinned.

"Really?"

"Do you want me to change my mind?" He shook his head.

"No, boss! I mean…Gibbs! I'll tell my team immediately."

"Good. Oh, and DiNozzo?"

"Yeah, boss?"

"Pack a toothbrush. This could take a while." He smirked as the MTAC feed shut off.

"Well boss," McGee grinned, "Tony seems happy to see us again."

"You think he's happy?" Gibbs asked as they exited MTAC and looked down into the bullpen where Keating and Ziva sat at their computers. He smirked, "Just wait till you see Ziva."


	4. Reunited

**Um, seriously? 3 updates in one day? Jeez! I really need a life! Or something to do! Review? **

"He's been up there for like twenty minutes, Aaron." Lynn complained, tapping her pen on her desk, "What's taking him so long?"

"You are _so _falling for our boss." Scott grinned and Aaron just sent him a look as Lynn turned to him.

"I am _not. _I just find him an attractive human being."

"Nuh-uh." Scott smiled, "You want to sleep with him."

She shrugged and then leant forward in her desk chair, "So what if I do, Scott?" She questioned, "The way that he's built…he would be very good in bed."

"You've studied the way he's built?" Aaron demanded before shaking his head and letting out a breath, "You have spent _way _too much time fantasizing over sleeping with _Tony."_

"I do not fantasize over sleeping with Tony!" She protested, and Scott and Aaron just looked at her. She sighed, "Fine. _Maybe…._occasionally….most of the time I'm fantasizing about him…then there are some moments when I'm not!"

"What, when you're screwing someone else?"

"You talk about me like I'm a playboy bunny!"

Scott and Aaron just shared a look, "Because you sleep with a new guy like every night."

"Do not!"

"Okay, at least six days of the week. Come on, Lynn, we're not blind." Scott said.

"Yeah, you're an attractive woman…" Aaron supplied.

"But come _on, _Tony?!"

"What about me?" The boss' voice entered the bullpen, and they all sat up straight.

"Tony!" Aaron exclaimed, "We were just saying…"

"How you're going to go home and get packed."

"For what?" Scott asked.

"We're taking a trip. Washington DC. NCIS team needs us." He said as he promptly grabbed his car keys and then left, "I expect to see you three here at 0700h so we can catch our flight. Have a nice night, team!" He called, and everyone else stood up to pack up their gear. Lynn put her backpack on her desk as Aaron finished and walked over to her desk, placing a small wrapper on her desk, "You're gonna need it for this overnight trip we go on with boss. Maybe you'll get lucky." He winked as he exited the squadroom. She looked down at the condom he had placed on her desk. She fumed.

"Just hold on a second…why the hell did you have this?!" She called back.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Keating, you got anything for me?" Gibbs asked as he walked into the bullpen, McGee behind him. Tim took his seat at his own desk as Keating moved from the fifth one up to the plasma.

"Yeah. Looks like Lindsey Evans took out large amounts of money every month to a guy named Daniel Roberts."

"Run him."

"On it."

"McGee, you get down to Abby's. I'm gonna go have a chat with the director." Gibbs said as he started out of the bullpen.

"What about me, Gibbs?" Ziva called after him, and Gibbs turned his head just slightly but didn't slow his pace.

"Go home. Get some rest. You're gonna need it for tomorrow."

"Why?"

"Oh." He stopped, placing a hand on his chest as he turned, "I didn't tell you?" He asked, feigning surprise. He dropped his hand from his chest, "DiNozzo's coming home tomorrow." He said before he turned back around and headed up the steps. Ziva blinked once, twice, and then turned to McGee.

"McGee is this true?" She questioned, and he nodded his head.

"Every ounce. Our cases are related, Ziva."

And that was when the biggest smile McGee had seen in two months formed on Ziva's face. He couldn't help but smile back.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Timmy, Timmy, Timmy…." Abby sang as she danced around her lab, "It's so great to see you again!" She smiled as she gladly took the Caf-Pow from Tim's hands.

"Gibbs wants to know if you have anything else." He said.

"Nope. Not yet. He left me practically nothing to work with, I did all I could. Right now I'm trying to determine if there are any fingerprints at all on any of this trash that was found at the crime scene." She sighed, holding up evidence bags and then throwing them back down, "McGee!" She wined, "I feel hopeless!"

"Wanna hear good news?" He questioned, smiling.

"Yes, yes, yes! What? Tell me, tell me!" She jumped up and down.

"Abby, Abby stop. You can jump after I tell you." She nodded and then stopped.

"Spit it out, McGee, jeez!"

"Tony's coming back home." he grinned, "Tomorrow." And that was when she screamed and then bolted out of the lab, eagerly pressing the elevator button multiple times, "Where you going, Abs?" he questioned.

"To celebrate! With Ziva!" She grinned as she jumped into the elevator, the doors closing, "Bye Timmy!" She waved eagerly, and Tim just waved back, once as the elevator doors sealed shut.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

At 0800h in the morning, Ziva David waltzed into the bullpen, feeling peachier than ever. She had decided to style her hair that morning, wanting nothing more than for Tony to feel as if he actually deserved her.

"Morning, McGee!" She nearly shouted, chipper today.

"Good morning, Ziva! How are you feeling today?"

"Just great, thank you!"

"Ziver." She turned around to face Gibbs, who was holding two coffee cups. He shoved one towards her, "It's been a while since I've seen that smile." He said, and she just smiled.

"Well Gibbs you know…" He just bent down and kissed her lightly on the side of the head.

"Keep it there." he whispered, "I like it." She just smiled.

"Hey, McGee," He waved a manila folder, "Take this down to Ducky, will ya?"

"I will!" Ziva jumped up, running over to snatch the file as she headed down towards the elevator. McGee and Gibbs just shared a smile.

"It's good to see her happy." he said.

"That it is, McGee. That it is."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"You know, sometimes I wonder just how in the world I manage not to _kill _you every single day!" Lynn shouted at Aaron who was sitting in back of the car that they rented from the airport. Tony was currently trying to find a place to park, he had made it through security, and he was just _trying _to find a place. His normal place was taken, which made him angry.

"Well maybe if you weren't such a _whore."_

"I am _not _a whore!" She exclaimed.

"You've slept with like every guy I've ever met!" He shouted back.

"I have not!"

"Have too!"

"Have not!" Suddenly Tony slammed on the brakes and turned around to face his two partners.

"Shut the hell up! You are both whores, all right? Get over it! And shut up! I'm trying to find a parking space!" He shouted as he stared to drive again.

"Someone's a little testy today." Lynn mused.

"Yeah, all right, I am? I'm going back to the team that I thought I was faithful to, the team who was faithful in me…the team that I left to go with you _idiots_! Yeah, I'm a _little _testy!"

The rest of the car ride was quiet as he managed to find a parking space. They got out of the car and into the elevator without a word. They had signed in, visitor badge's an all, which too way to long in Tony's opinion, and then started up into the elevator again. Once the elevator stopped and they entered into the squadroom, Tony couldn't keep the smile off of his face. As he neared the bullpen, he heard his name being called out by McGee, and Gibbs looked up at him, giving him a smirk. McGee ran over and patted him on the shoulder.

"Tony!" He exclaimed before Tony grinned.

"Probie!" He greeted before he pulled him into a manly hug, patting his back a couple of times before letting of him again, slapping his cheek, "Still the same as ever, I see."

Gibbs approached him next, placing a hand on his shoulder, "It's good to see you back, DiNozzo. Got a tan, I see."

He shrugged and gave a small, closed grin, "You know how I am."

Gibbs smirked back, "It's good to have you back on the team, DiNozzo." He gestured to his desk, "Hasn't been touched." He said as he retreated to his desk. Tony grinned as he went and ran his hand over the wood before he sat down, opening up his drawers to make sure that everything was still there.

"Yeah, she wouldn't let anyone touch it." McGee added. He sighed, "I never though I'd say this, but it's good to have you back."

"It's good to _be _back, McGoogle!" He grinned, and his team just smiled at each other. Lynn's eyes, which had been fixated on Tony, who was going through his stuff, stopped and then looked up at the rather beautiful foreign woman that was standing at the other side of the bullpen in complete shock.

Gibbs looked up at her and then towards Tony before he cleared his throat, "Uh…DiNozzo?"

"Yeah, boss?" he asked, but he didn't look up.

"DiNozzo." He said again, and this time he looked up, but his eyes never met Gibbs. They moved straight to the women's next to him. He sat up straight.

"Tony?" She asked, almost as if she didn't believe it.

"Ziva." He smiled, and she smiled back.

"Ziva?" Lynn broke the silence, as they just stared at each other, speaking solely with their eyes. Tony broke the gaze and stared at Marilynn Garter, "So _this _is Ziva?"

"Yes." She nodded, "Ziva David. Tony's partner." She walked towards her desk, and he started towards her, and they both met up in the middle of the bullpen. Suddenly all eyes were on them, "Welcome back." She smiled, whispering the words to him, "It has been a while."

"Yes it has." He whispered back, their bodies just feet apart. The tension was felt by everyone in the room. There was silence, all eyes fixated on them, "It's good to be back." He agreed before the room was silent again. Ziva looked down at her feet and then up at him. He looked around at everything but her.

"Aw, damn it, Tony!" Aaron cried out, "Just freaking kiss her already!"

They immediately jumped and split in opposite directions, Tony heading towards Gibbs desk and Ziva heading towards her own, "So, Gibbs, the case?" He asked, and Gibbs just smirked, knowing fully well what Tony was trying to accomplish as he stood up.

"Ah yes…the case."


	5. Introductions

"All right, boss!" Tony exclaimed, clapping his hands together as he stood up fully, leaving where he was leaning over Gibbs' desk before, "Let's go and see Abs!"

"Uh…Tony…I think that you may want to brace yourself. She'll probably kill you."

"Why would she kill me?" Tony asked, "She loves me!"

"No, I mean she'll probably squeeze you to death." Tony just laughed as he started out of the bullpen. Ziva stood up to follow him, but then Gibbs stopped DiNozzo.

"Uh…Tony?" He questioned.

"Yeah, boss?" He asked, saying it excitedly.

"You gonna introduce us or just expect us to make our own formalities?" Gibbs questioned, and Tony cocked his head to the side before he remembered…he was in charge of another team.

He sighed and walked over to the three agents that were standing in the middle of the entrance to the bullpen.

"Team Gibbs, this is Special Agent Scott Lewis." he pointed to the black haired man, "Special Agent Aaron Davis." He pointed to the man with the brown hair, "And finally Special Agent Lynn Garter."

"Team DiNozzo, this is Team Gibbs. Special Agent Timothy McGee." he stood up and walked towards them, eagerly shaking their hands.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Tim. Call me Tim."

"Probie! Get your McButt in your McSeat." He pointed to his desk, and McGee sighed.

"Same old Tony." He muttered.

"Special Agent Daniel Keating." He pointed to the man at the fifth desk. He poked his head around and waved.

"Nice to meet you all." He greeted.

"Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs!" he did in his best announcer voice, "Former Marine Sniper, number one coffee lover, doesn't take any…"

"You done, DiNozzo?" Gibbs cut him off, and his team silently laughed with each other.

He finally turned to his last team member, who was sitting at her desk, looking more beautiful than ever, "And last but not least. Mossad Officer Ziva David." He said, and then quickly changed the subject before Ziva could even open her mouth, "Let's go see Abby, team. She's our forensic scientist. Then we can work on the case."

He shoved his team members out of the bullpen, "Take the elevator, second ground level floor, I'll meet you there!" He shouted before he turned to his boss.

"Hey boss…" He started.

"I'm not your boss, DiNozzo. If you wanted me to still be your boss, you wouldn't have taken the promotion from Vance." He said, "And besides. Just from what I've seen, you're doing a hell of a job."

Ziva's heart fell from where she stood on the other side of Gibbs' desk.

"I haven't done anything…"

"It's just something you know." Gibbs shrugged, "Figured you'd picked up on it. Obviously you haven't. Did you remember _anything _I taught you?" Tony laughed.

"Now that's…" He nodded, "Okay…I'm just gonna…check up on my team. Before they die because of Abby's…weirdness?" He left quickly, and Gibbs turned to Ziva.

"Gibbs I…"

"He's not back, Ziva." He softly said.

"Why did he take the job in the first place? Some things do not make sense." She shook her head, "He has changed, Gibbs."

"Talk to him. You need to. I don't want this screwing with our case."

"I…" He just stared at her, "Yes, Gibbs." She said as she exited stage left to go and talk to Tony.

"Boss?" McGee questioned, and Gibbs just turned to look at him as if to say 'what', "I…uh…Tony doesn't know what Ziva was like when he was gone."

"Nope." He said, simply.

"Dontcha think we should tell him?"

Gibbs just gave him a look that read 'Are you stupid' before McGee turned back, "Sorry boss. I was just…"

"I know, McGee. I know."

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"TONY!" Abby exclaimed as she dropped her Caf-Pow to the floor, the cup shattering as the red liquid erupted everywhere. She didn't care. Tony's team, on the other hand, was splashed with some, causing them to jump up a little before scowling at each other. Especially Lynn. She turned up her lip as Abby squeezed Tony tightly. She knew that they weren't together, I mean, anyone with eyes could see that they weren't meant to be at all, but it still engaged a strong wave of jealousy to ripple through her body.

Aaron caught it and gently shoved her elbow, "Knock it off." he whispered, and it was only then that she realized that her scowl at her boss was probably very noticeable. She wiped it off her face as Tony turned around. She smiled sweetly at him, and Aaron rolled his eyes.

"Abby, this is my team, Aaron Davis, Scott Lewis, and Lynn Garter." he pointed to them, "Team, this is our forensic lab specialist, Abby Scuito." She greeted them all with hugs, which they weren't expecting before she jumped happily up and down, turning back to Tony.

"Ohmygod! I can't believe you're really here! Well I mean, I knew you'd come back. I mean I knew that you couldn't stay away from us…especially one little lady." She grinned, holding onto his shoulder as she rocked him back and forth. Tony just smiled at her.

"I'm actually here for the case, Abby. Our cases are…you know, related?"

Nobody noticed the Israeli that slinked into the room, except for Abby, who exclaimed rather loudly, "Ziva! Have you seen Tony yet?" She asked, walking around him and grabbing his shoulders as she pushed him towards her, jumping happily, "He's back, I mean, he's really back! This is so exciting!" Tony was now just feet from Ziva. Abby decided to show Tony's team around the lab, which both Aaron and Scott were very interested in, so they followed her around. Lynn, on the other hand, couldn't move, her eyes fixated on Tony and Ziva, who were standing pretty much in the middle of the lab, Ziva almost shoved up against the table in the middle.

"Tony, we need to talk." She said, her voice low and serious.

He sighed, "Yeah, I think that talk's _long _overdue." He laughed, but she didn't smile. He let his falter, "Now?" He sighed again, "This really isn't the best time."

"Tonight?" She asked, "Pizza and a movie like always? I'll stop by your place tonight."

"Uh…actually Ziva, we're in a hotel…"

"Oh, I thought you would want to stay in your apartment."

"I sold my apartment."

"Well I bet that you did not know that I bought it then, yes?"

"You bought my apartment?" he asked in shock, "And everything that was left in it?"

She nodded, "Everything."

"With the microwave? And Fred?" Fred was his name of his 'prized' refrigerator. She laughed a little.

"Yes, Tony. Everything you left in your apartment."

"Why?" he questioned.

"I…" _It was all I had left. _She wanted to scream out, but then she let her eyes falter from Tony's and catch Lynn's, who was staring evilly at them, jealousy crawling out of her eyes (which Ziva swore had turned green), "I will see you upstairs in the squadroom." She nodded, and then shared another look with Lynn, her eyes meeting hers for just a second before she exited the lab.

"Tony?" Lynn questioned after a couple of seconds, "I mean boss?"

He turned his head from where Ziva exited and focused his attention on the team, "Lewis! Davis!" he shouted, "Get out here! We've got a case to solve. Back up to the squadroom, all of you. Now."

He said before he started out of the lab.

Lynn started after him and Scott followed when Aaron grabbed Lynn's arm, "Hey. What the hell did you do?" He questioned as Scott moved forward.

"I didn't do anything, Aaron." She said, ripping her arm from his grip, "Now let me go. We've got a murder to solve." She spat as she started back into the elevator.

"Yeah, I just hope it's not Ziva's." He muttered as he ran after her, leaving Abby alone in her thoughts before she realized she had spilled her Caf-Pow. Hurriedly, she grabbed the phone and punched in a number.

"McGee!" she shouted, "I'm having a crisis….I. Need. Caf-Pow. NOW!"

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"So 'boss' tell me what you and your team has determined." Gibbs said once both teams were in the squadroom.

"Boss, campfire?" Lynn asked, and Tony looked at Gibbs who just smirked. He put his hands up.

"Fine." He said, "But I'm not in it."

"Huddle up! Grab some chairs! Campfire!" Ziva shared a smile with McGee before grabbing her chair and pulling it around where McGee and Keating were already in the circle. Scott and Aaron came around the corner with chairs and took their seats in the circle between Tony and McGee. Ziva went to take her normal place next to Tony, but then was quickly intercepted by another chair being smashed into hers, running hers into Keating's.

"Sorry. I always sit next to the boss in campfires." Lynn smiled, and Ziva just gave her an angry, closed smile back as Lynn took her seat.

"All right, so what have we got? Probie!" Tony exclaimed.

"Well uh, her name's Lindsey Evans, she had a lover apparently by the name of Sarah Taylor, her Mom's name is Carly Evans."

"Alibi." Tony demanded.

McGee, Ziva, and Keating shared looks before Gibbs responded from where he sat, typing at his desk, "Don't have one."

"Boss?" Tony questioned.

"Not the boss. Send your team out to go and bring her back here."

"Boss you forgot to get her alibi?" He questioned, "That's…" Gibbs just stared at him in a way that made Tony gulp, "Right. Sorry. Shutting up now, boss. Lynn, you and-"

"Ziva." Gibbs finished, and Ziva's eyes grew wide at the same time that McGee's did and they shared a look over the aisle. Gibbs pointed to the elevator, "You two go. Now." Ziva sighed as she pushed her chair backwards towards her desk to gear up.

"I need an address, Gibbs." She sighed as she watched Lynn holster her gun and badge.

Gibbs handed her a yellow sticky note. Ziva turned around to leave, but Gibbs stopped her, "Ziva." He said again, and she turned back around as Gibbs reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a pair of keys, "You drive." He said, giving her an invisible grin. Ziva smiled back and took the keys out of his hand before grabbing her backpack and starting out of the bullpen.

"Come on, Lynn. I am driving." She said as they exited the bullpen.

"Going for coffee. You figure out where this drug dealer is, who he is, and where he was the night both of them were murdered!" He shouted as he exited the bullpen as well. Aaron shared a look with Tony.

"This is not going to be pretty." Tony sighed as he leaned back in his chair, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Oh hell no." Aaron agreed.

"20 bucks Ziva throws the first punch." McGee bet.

Aaron shook his head, "50 bucks if they make it down to the parking lot before they kill each other."

**Quote:**

**"I'd rather you shoot me first." -Ziva  
**


	6. Carly Evans

**If you didn't like Lynn the last chapter, you're gonna HATE her now! Enjoy my second update of the day! (to make up for not updating yesterday!) Enjoy!**

Ziva David gripped the steering wheel and tried to keep her eyes fixated on the road in front of her and not the obnoxious woman next to her. She was currently singing some song that Ziva was not very fond of…and she was singing it terribly. She winced as she felt the urge to get to Carly's house faster…only so that she'd stop listening to her singing.

Lynn cried out as Ziva moved into the other lane, with traffic going the opposite direction, to pass the car in front of her. She narrowly missed the car in front of her, which honked and swerved out of the way as she got back into her lane. Lynn gripped everything she could in the car, and Ziva smirked.

"What the hell are you trying to do?! Kill me?!"

"What?" She asked, looking over at her as she shrugged her shoulders, "Tony does not seem to have any problems with my driving."

"Oh so _that's _what this is about, huh?" She asked as Ziva avoided another collision while turning. She turned into the wrong lane and narrowly avoided cars as she finally got back into her own lane. Once Lynn stopped screaming, she resumed what she was saying before, "You're trying to kill me so that you can have Tony all to yourself, isn't it? You're just afraid of a little competition?" She taunted, and that was it. Ziva slammed on the brakes, sending Lynn flying forward in her seat. A couple of cars honked and then went around them before Ziva turned to Lynn.

"What the hell do you think you're trying to do? Make me seriously injured? You're such a _bitch_!" And that was when Ziva managed to put the car into park, unbuckle her seatbelt, shove Lynn up against the car door, and pull out her knife, shoving it to her throat.

"What did you just call me?" She murmured.

"I called you a bitch. Because you are one!" Lynn cried out, seemingly unfazed that there was a knife at her throat.

Ziva debated between cutting her throat open or letting her go. They had a job to do, killing her where there weren't so many witness' was starting to look like a good option.

"You think that Tony still cares for you, you're sadly mistaken." Lynn nearly whispered, "He got over you when he slept with me." Ziva's eyes saddened, and her whole body softened. She slowly moved off of her and then put her knife back into her pocket before she put the car back in drive, speeding away, her heart pounding in her ears.

"He gave in that quickly to you?" she mumbled, unable to control what she was saying. It was almost as if she was in a trance.

"Yeah, why? You gonna try to kill me again?" She asked, moving as close as she could to the door, making sure it was unlocked, one hand on the handle, the other on her seat belt.

"I would never hurt something that made Tony happy." She muttered, but she didn't think that Lynn heard. She was glad she didn't.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"So boss we figured out that the drug dealer, Daniel Roberts, has many prior arrests. Mostly drug related, drug selling, DUI's, all of that. But he doesn't have a cell, doesn't have a work, doesn't even have a library card." McGee told Gibbs as he walked back into the bullpen, a new coffee cup in hand.

"You got a picture?"

"Uh…yeah, boss…"

"BOLO. DiNozzo, you put it out."

"On it." He said as he walked towards his desk. Tony put out the BOLO before Gibbs left again.

"I think I wanna up that bet, Tony."

"What bet?" He asked.

"With Ziva and Lynn?"

"Talk about a cat fight." Scott smirked.

"Oh come on you guys." Tony laughed, "What would they be fighting over? I mean, besides hottest woman here." He let out a low whistle, "It doesn't make sense." He laughed and the other guys just looked at each other, rolling their eyes.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ziva quickly got out of the parked car, walking towards the door.

"If you drove any more like a maniac!" Lynn exclaimed, her legs wobbling as she got out of the car and followed her.

Ziva ignored her and walked up the steps. She wanted this day to be over. It was almost sundown, and she just wanted out of there. She knocked once, twice, and then Lynn rolled her eyes.

"You are the impatient type." She noted, "You cannot wait, can you? I bet that you could not wait to sleep with Tony either, yes?" She asked as her heart sank.

"What?" She demanded, "He's good looking."

Ziva smirked, "That is a below statement."

Lynn furrowed her eyebrows together and turned to her, "What?" She questioned.

"Sorry, did I say something?"

"Yeah, you said 'below statement.'"

It was Ziva's turn to be confused, "What? He is handsome, yes? An attractive human being." She said as she slyly moved over to the window and looked in, trying to determine if Carly was actually there.

"You mean 'understatement.'" She finally understood. She scoffed, "I'm amazed that Tony would want to be with someone like you. You can't even speak English! What are you, like some secret spy? Some terrorist?"

"I am not a terrorist." She calmly said, even though she was ready to strangle her. She curled her hands up into fists.

"But you're a foreign woman, right?"

"Yes. Israeli." She said, her hand subconsciously moving to her necklace and rubbing it. She made a face.

"Oh. You're a _jew._"

Ziva winced and turned away as she made sure that all of her willpower was pushed down as she looked through the window again, "Carly Evans is dead." She announced as she took this opportunity to get away from her, "I must call Gibbs."

"I'll call Tony." She announced, and Ziva hurried down the steps while pressing speed dial 2: Tony DiNozzo. She smirked. Wait till she found out the line was busy. That prejudice bitch was going to get it.

Ziva was going to kill Gibbs when she got back.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Once the NCIS team got there, Ducky got the body out (who freaked out Tony's team with all of his stories), and then got back to headquarters, Ziva was forced to drive the car back home with Lynn.

Her exact words?

"I'd rather you shoot me first." But, nevertheless, she drove back with Lynn, nearly knocking the NCIS ME truck back over in the process, but that was besides the point. The sooner she got out of there, the better. Lynn's words still rang in her head…_ 'He got over you when he slept with me.' _

By the time that Ziva had put the car away, checked it back in, and then decided that she was going to finally head back up to the squadroom, everyone was already back. She entered the bullpen, and her eyes automatically connected with Tony's. She put her bags down on her desk, and then started back out of the bullpen, towards the break room. Tony knew that look.

He was either in trouble or she needed him.

Most of the time he prayed that it was the second one.

He entered the break room to find her already sitting down at a table, picking at the plastic.

"Hey, Ziva, you okay?"

"Tony." She stated, no emotion at all. She didn't look up at him as he walked over to her, "It is different having you and your team here. Is it wrong to make impressions from people the moment that you meet them?"

"Huh?" he asked, sitting down across from her, "What are you talking about?"

"I am talking about Lynn." She sighed, blinking back the tears that were threatening to fall. She snapped her eyes up to his, and they were burning fiercely as she struggled to keep back the sobs, "She is prejudice."

Tony leaned back in his seat, "Lynn isn't…" Ziva played with her star of David, turning it back and forth, and Tony knew that she was nervous. That was the number one sign. Either he had to leave or he had to endure one of her talks, "Ziva I didn't know."

"Of course you didn't." Ziva said, all of her tears suddenly gone. _You were too busy fantasizing about her! _And with that, she left the break room, unable to say anything else.

Tony ran a hand through his hair and sat back, groaning. It hadn't even been one day! There was something bugging her, he knew that, and it wasn't just Lynn being…well an idiot. There was something else. He thought back to two months ago, right before he handed in his recognition. They had gotten into a fight…about? He remember waving a file in front of her face…his medical file! His eyes grew wide and he sat up straight his heart rate suddenly accelerating full speed.

She didn't…she couldn't…she…she didn't _know, _did she?

**MWHAHAH! Well what could possibly be in Tony's medical file that he doesn't want anyone to find out about? Don't worry, you won't find out next chapter. Or the chapter after that. Or probably the chapter after that! hehe but you'll find out...eventually! The faster you review, the more reviews I get, and the more reviews I get, the more chapters I upload, and the faster I upload chapters, the sooner you'll get to find out about Tony's medical file! :) Makes sense, right? good. Now go and review! It's a pretty button that will MAKE MY DAY!(Oh, and by the way...I actually did write an alternate chapter to this where Ziva slits Lynn's throat...) haha...but obviously I changed it. :)**

**OH! AND NEW THING I'M DOING! A QUOTE FROM THE NEXT CHAPTER!**

**HERE WE GO:**

"Yup. But let's not think about that…World of Warcraft tonight?" -McGee


	7. Sleep

**So did anyone else read the Ausiello spoiler for Tiva? I'm really scared now! AHH! If you haven't read it, go to Entertainment Weekly's website and then go to the Ausiello files and scroll down a little till you see the Tony/Ziva one…. :O It made me shocked! Hahha well review this! Please! And thanks super much for all the reviews I got for the last chapter! I appreciate it! WOW! **

The bullpen was quiet at 100h, both teams completely frustrated, Gibbs team was ready to fall asleep, but trying hard not to, while Tony's team was still avidly going. McGee had to remember that San Diego was in California, which was three hours behind DC, so, for them, it was around 2000h. Aaron sat behind Tony's desk, watching as Tony rubbed his hands back and forth against his eyelids, mumbling incoherently. Scott was leaning up on the wall between Keating and McGee's desks, and Ziva was at her own, by herself. She was glad that Lynn had decided to leave for coffee…two hours ago.

Aaron groaned, "Tony, she pulled us again!" He complained, and Tony groaned. Ziva furrowed her eyebrows together.

"What are you talking about?" She questioned.

Before Tony could say anything, Aaron intercepted, "Lynn always pulls this on us. When we have a late case she always says she's going to go get coffee, takes all of her stuff and doesn't come back."

"It's really annoying." Tony said, "And I tried to tell her that if she didn't stop that she was going to get in serious trouble. She didn't take my punishment threats seriously."

Ziva shook her head and looked down at the file she was holding, turning a page, "I am sure she didn't."

Tony looked up at her and furrowed his eyebrows together, "I'm confused."

"So what else is new, yes?" Ziva asked, and he shook his head before his cell started to ring. He picked it up in seconds.

"DiNozzo….uh. Okay? I'll send Aaron down….no, I'm not coming…..you feel what?…yeah fine." He sighed, "I'll tell Gibbs….bye."

"Who was that?" Ziva questioned as he closed his phone, "_Lynn_?"

"Yeah." Tony said, "She wants us all back to the hotel." Tony said, standing up.

"Oh I am sure that she wants you back at the hotel." She muttered, and Tony turned on her.

"David, you got a problem?" He questioned, and she was taken back by his assertiveness. He was rather protective of that prejudice girl. Ziva thought, but decided to keep the to herself.

"Tony, please. I did not mean to say anything mean about Lynn."

"You still aren't mad about…well…before I left."

"What? What I said or what you said?"

"The medical file." He mumbled, and then regretted it when he saw a look flash through her face. She looked down. She had forgotten about that. She probably needed to give that back to Dr. Pitt…after she finished reading it.

"So you are going to go and see Lynn?" She questioned, and he nodded.

"It's about time we turned in for the night anyways. Sorry, Ziva." She understood. He wanted to be with Lynn. She had no control over them.

"Don't apologize, boss, it's a sign of weakness." Gibbs called as he entered the bullpen.

"Right, boss."

Gibbs sighed, "How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not your boss?" He questioned, and Tony grinned.

"Does it really matter, boss?" he questioned, putting emphasis on the last word.

"Go home. Get some rest. We'll deal with this tomorrow. There's nothing more we can do tonight."

They all nodded as they packed up their gear. Tony and his team were already ready, so they exited, leaving Ziva to stare after him as the elevator doors closed. He didn't even say goodnight.

"You okay, Ziva?" McGee asked, from where he stopped and looked up at her. She let her eyes leave the elevator and meet McGee's, and she nodded.

"Yes, I am fine. Goodnight, McGee."

"Night." He called back as he watched her enter the elevator that Tony and his team just disappeared through. McGee turned to Keating.

"She's not fine." Keating stated, and McGee nodded his head.

"Yup. But let's not think about that…World of Warcraft tonight?" McGee grinned.

"Hell yeah!" Keating exclaimed as they high fived and the ran out of the bullpen.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Lynn, this better be World War III!" Tony announced as he flung open the door to their hotel room. Penthouse. You have to love vacations on government money.

She appeared from the bedroom wearing nothing but a bathrobe. Tony stepped back and so did Scott. Aaron let his jaw drop and he whistled. She ran the white towel she was holding in her hand through her hair once more, and then grinned, "Hey guys! Since it was around like 2000h, I was hoping that you could…we could, you know, order pizza, watch movies…"

"I'm in!" Aaron said, taking a mental picture in his mind of his partner. Lynn, however, had her eyes focused solely on Tony.

"That's all you wanted us to come back for? Is to watch a movie?" She shrugged her shoulders and nodded her head, "I thought you said it was urgent!" He exclaimed, and she nodded.

"It _is _urgent! I'm bored." Tony groaned and turned around. He suddenly grabbed onto Aaron's arm.

"Come on. Let's go."

"But Tony…"

"Now, Davis!" He demanded, and Tony shot Lynn one glare before he dragged Aaron out of the room, "Tony, did you see how hot she looked?"

"Yeah, yeah, smoking." he sarcastically said, "Come on. Let's go."

"Where are we going?"

"What do we normally do on nights like this?"

"Uh….nothing? Go to sleep…?"

"We go out to drink, Aaron."

"But it's not the end of the case…"

"I know, but I've got this really good bar I wanna take you to. Haven't been there in forever." He grinned, and Aaron smiled back, though he wanted to do nothing but stare at Lynn all day.

He sighed but let the elevator doors close anyways. Besides, he was a good friend, a good agent, and he knew that something was on Tony's mind. What? He honestly didn't know. But hey, what were friends for?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Once Lynn was sure that they were gone and that they weren't coming back, she approached the black haired computer geek sitting in front of the television.

She plopped down next to him on the brown sofa, her clothes changed into sweats and a t-shirt. He didn't even turn to look at her, and she scoffed and grabbed the remote off of the table, switching off the TV.

"Hey!" he exclaimed, "I was watching that!"

"Oh no one watches Weird Science anymore." She said, flicking her hand around.

"I do!"

"Exactly." She said, "Hey look, Scott, can I trust you?"

"I would hope so…now can _I _trust _you_? Well…"

"I didn't ask you that, idiot. I'm saying could you keep a secret?"

"What do you want, Lynn?"

"Okay, so when Ziva and I drove to go and pick Carly Evan's up, I kinda told her something."

"What kind of something?" Scott asked, turning to face her. Though he was honestly rather scared.

She looked around before she took in a deep breath, "I told her that Tony didn't care about her."

"Lynn!" Scott exclaimed, "Why did you do that?!"

"It's worse." She said, "For Ziva and Tony."

"What did you do?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"I kinda…sorta…told her that Tony and I were sleeping together."

Scott stood up, "WHAT?!" He shouted, staring down at the blonde haired woman on the couch.

"Whoa, chills Scott. I just said it so that she'd stop being so jealous of me. I mean, it's not the only woman who's been jealous of me…"

"Why can't you just keep your damn hands out of other people's business?" Lynn visibly swallowed. Scott never _ever _cursed. Ever. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea…

"Look, she just kept on complaining and complaining…"

"She had a right to." Scott said as he ran a hand through his hair. He groaned and then started out of the room. She immediately stood up.

"What are you doing?" She asked, a little fear evident in her voice.

"I'm just going to take a shower."

"You're not going to tell him, are you?"

Scott shrugged, "Haven't decided yet." He said as he entered the bathroom, locking the door behind him.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

By the time that 0315h rolled around, Tony and Aaron slinked into the hotel room. Tony was semi-drunk, but his brain was still able to function, he had only had about three drinks, whereas Aaron had had a total of one and a half.

Tony flicked on the light as he moved towards the bedroom, opening it up and finding his bed completely neat and made up. Aaron disappeared into his own bedroom, closing the door behind him as Tony moved over to his pillow, smiling at the small complimentary chocolate that was sitting on top. He opened it up and plopped it into his mouth, the warm flavor running over his tongue and down his throat.

He grabbed a towel off of the chair, throwing it over his shoulder as he started towards the bathroom. He opened up the door, turned on the light, and unbuttoned his shirt as well as undid his tie. He pulled the curtain open before he screamed once and jumped back.

"Hey! Hey! Knock it off! She'll hear you!" Scott said as he jumped out.

"Scott, what the hell are you doing in my shower?! And what are you talking about?" Tony demanded as he let go of the counter.

"I'm talking about Lynn."

"What about her?"

"She kinda…look, don't tell her I told you this but…"

"Spit it out, Scott!"

"Lynn kinda told me that she told Ziva that you and her were sleeping together." Scott quickly said.

Tony blinked once, twice, before crying out, "WHAT?!"

**QUOTE:**

"I should punch you harder and faster than the deadly asteroid the size of Texas that was hurdling towards earth in 'Armageddon' you know, Bruce Willis? Yeah. Well I won't. Because I don't hit women. Or in your case, _girls._" -Tony


	8. Apartment

Scott didn't even have the change to stop Tony. He was storming across the room, flinging open Lynn's door, and then charging over to her. She barely had time to register anything before she ended up on the floor in a large boom, all of her sheets around her. She sat up and blinked as she realized that her mattress was lying on one side; he had just flipped over the mattress.

"Marilynn!" Tony shouted, not caring who heard, "What do you think you're trying to do?!"

"Sleep?" She questioned, blinking a little, trying to get used to the darkness.

"I'm talking about Ziva." He gritted her name through is clenched teeth.

"What about her?" She asked, confused.

"About how you told her we were _sleeping together!_" on the words 'sleeping together' he started towards her, wanting nothing more than to strangle her.

She put her hands up as she stood up, "Look. I was just trying to help her…"

"Do what?" He questioned.

"She doesn't care about you, you know." Lynn shrugged, racking her mind for something that she could lie about for the saving of this lie, "She was actually rather happy for us."

"We're not sleeping together!" Tony exclaimed, frustrated, "How much is it going to take for you to get that into your stupid head?!"

"Tony!" She cried out, "Look, I was just trying to help!"

"Yeah? Well you didn't. And besides, we don't need your help!"

"I just told her, okay, I know it was a lie…"

"And wrong!" Tony shouted, "I should punch you harder and faster than the deadly asteroid the size of Texas that was hurdling towards earth in 'Armageddon' you know, Bruce Willis? Yeah. Well I won't. Because I don't hit women. Or in your case, _girls._"

"Tony!" Lynn shouted again.

Tony just raised his voice, "Lynn! It hasn't even been a day and you've already screwed with our relationship! We haven't seen each other in _months. _Lynn, can't you just…for once…stay in your _own _life and stop meddling in others?" He demanded, staring into her blue eyes through the darkness. Scott and Aaron stood at the other end of the door, watching their conversation…argument…from the other side.

"You sure this was a good idea, dude?" Aaron asked Scott, whispering.

"He had every right to know." Scott said, and Aaron nodded.

"You're right."

"Tony…" Lynn sighed as the someone knocked at the door. Aaron and Scott immediately bolted from the opening of Lynn's bedroom as Tony turned and looked over his shoulder at the front door.

"Hotel manager! Open up!" Tony glared at Lynn.

"This is all your fault!" He threw his hands up in the air, groaning in frustration as he went over to go and pull the door open, "What?!" he demanded, and the manager sighed.

"Sir, you need to quiet down. The others have been complaining."

"I don't care!"

"Sir!"

He groaned and flipped out his badge, "Look! I'm a federal agent, can't I just get some sleep?"

"Just because you have a fake ID doesn't mean that I'm going to let you disturb my other customers."

Tony gaped, "Excuse me?"

"Sir, I have to say that if you do not cooperate, I will ask you to leave the premises."

He looked over his shoulder at his team, and then nodded, "Fine. I don't care." He said as he shoved past the manager and then started towards the elevator. He buttoned up his shirt and tied his tie before he got in, pressing the down button. As he exited the elevator, walked through the vacant lobby, and exited, the hotel, he hailed down a taxi. He knew where he wanted to go. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys.

His key was still there. His copy. Tony didn't know just how many times he actually lost his keys. All he needed to do was clear his head.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tony stared up at the brick that covered his apartment. He grinned. He hadn't seen it in two months, maybe more, and he couldn't wait to go inside. He prayed that his key worked. He prayed to god that his key worked. He carefully walked up the stairs. What if someone else lived there now? But Ziva wouldn't lie to him. Unlike _Lynn. _He shuddered. Sleeping with Lynn? Never would he EVER. He sighed and stood in front of the door for a while before he finally decided to put his key in and turn it. He heard a click and he grinned as he slowly opened up the door and peeked inside. The lights were off, but it looked as if it had just been used. There was little dust, if none on the furniture, and he flicked on the light.

A blanket lay on the ground in front of the sofa and, though his memory was vague, he doubted that he left it there before he left. He walked towards the kitchen and grinned at the fridge that was up against the wall. He put his arms out wide, "Fred!" He exclaimed as he walked over to it. He opened it up, not expecting to find anything. However, he did find a couple of bottles of Corona, some leftovers, and other ingredients that were necessary for making some of his favorite dishes. Confused, he closed the door. "I could have sworn…" He whispered, "That I cleaned that out…" He shook his head. Maybe he didn't. But it didn't smell… He flew open the cabinets and realized that they were shoved full of food, some of the things he'd never even heard of before.

Confused even more, Tony walked out of the kitchen and started towards his bedroom. He was about to turn on the light when he stopped. A lump was on the left side of his bed, making no noise or movement at all. Tony cocked his head to the side and then had to remember what lump that was. He saw that lump in his bed many a time before…

They suddenly moved and sat up, turning to face him as they reached over and turned on the light, "Tony?" She asked, "What are you doing here?" He took in the fact that she looked absolutely beautiful with her bed head.

"What do you mean? This _is _my apartment." He said, leaning up against the door frame.

"Oh…yes…" She looked down.

"How long have you been staying here?" He questioned.

"I do not know. Since you have left."

"Every night?" He raised one eyebrow.

"Well actually, the apartment is rented out to Mr. Tony and Mrs. Ziva DiNozzo," She muttered, and Tony grinned.

"Are you trying to say something, David?" She narrowed her eyes to slits.

"No. But you still did not answer my question. What are you doing here, Tony?" She asked again, this time putting more emphasis on her words.

"I…" He started walking towards her, unable to try and figure out the best way to say this. She watched his closely, and she knew that something was bugging him deeply. He sighed as he sat down on the foot of her bed. She quickly moved her feet out of the way, bringing them up to her chest as she wrapped her arms around them, "I…I know how Gibbs feels about apologies…""Gibbs is not here. I am sure he will not mind." She said, and he sighed…again.

"Look, Ziva, I'm sorry."

"For?" She asked, confused. He stared into her eyes.

"For Lynn." He saw her visibly wince at her name. Not much, Gibbs probably couldn't notice it. McGee definitely couldn't…but he could, "She lied to you." He saw her eyes nearly ignite in fire.

"You are not sleeping with her?" She blurted out, and he hesitated a moment before speaking.

"No…but!" He exclaimed, "Before you go all ninja Mossad officer on her butt, will you just listen to me?"

She sighed, "Fine. Talk."

"I don't understand why Lynn said that in the first place…" Ziva scoffed.

"Tony are you blind?" She questioned, "She is obviously very attracted to you." She said, shrugging her shoulders as she looked the other way, "I mean who would not be?"

He grinned, "Well thanks Ziva, I didn't know."

She rolled her eyes, "Tony." She firmly said, "_I _was not able to resist your charm."

He gave her that famous DiNozzo smile again, "No one is." She rolled her eyes.

"Tony, can you ever be serious, for once in your life can something not be a game to you?"

"I know that it's not a game."

"Okay, one of your stupid movies then? It is not always about hot women and brave men." She reiterated, thinking briefly back to when they were trapped in that box. Oh so long ago…she sighed at the memory.

"Well you're hot, and I'm brave." He said again, and she scoffed, rolling her eyes. She gestured to him.

"See! See! This is what I am talking about! You have no sense of anyone's feelings."

He looked at her and brushed the back of his hand gently on her forearm before dropping it, "I know how you felt when I resigned."

She turned to look at him, "You did not understand. You do not understand."

He shook his head, "Perhaps not. But I know how I felt."

"If you felt that way, then why did you accept the promotion? Why did you leave?" She demanded, tears brimming her eyelids.

"What happened to us, Ziva?" He suddenly asked, his voice soft as he cut her off. She slightly cocked her head to the side and stared into the deep brown pools that pleaded for her to forgive him. About what, she didn't know.

"I did what was best for the team."

"You didn't think what would be best for me? For us?" He poked her lightly in the leg, "For you?" She looked down at the comforter, and Tony knew that she was nervous; she moved her hand up to her necklace. He sighed and looked down before standing back up, "Sorry. I shouldn't have said anything."

"You were the one that left." She pointed out.

"I did what was best for the team." Tony repeated back before he started towards the door again.

"Tony, wait." She called as he stopped in the doorway. He turned around and she stood up, revealing her pajamas to his eyes. He grinned. She was wearing black sweat pants and an Ohio State Buckeyes Tee. She stopped before him, "Stay." She said, "Spend the night with me. Just like before."

"Why?" He asked. She took a moment before answering him.

"It is your apartment."

"And those are my clothes." He smirked, and she looked down at her outfit before looking back up at him.

"Tony, just stay." She repeated.

"Well I _did _get kicked out of the hotel…." He started, sighing a little.

"You got kicked out of the hotel?" She gaped in shock, fumbling a little with her words, "Why?"

"I told Lynn off." Ziva gave the smallest smirk before she grabbed his hand, the electric sparks running up and down her entire body. She pulled his towards the bed, and he stripped to his boxers. Ziva was already in bed as he climbed in next to her. He reached over and turned off the light, sinking down in the cold sheets. Just the thought of her there next to him almost calmed him. He glanced over at his partner, and it was obvious that she wasn't asleep; she wasn't snoring. He sighed, gazing at her back as the muscles contracted and expanded with her breathing pattern. He turned over on his side, facing her back, the mattress slightly bouncing as he did so. She let out a small moan, and then quickly shut her mouth. He carefully wrapped his arms around her body, pulling her back towards his chest. Her entire body stiffened as she shuddered against his chest. He rested his chin on her shoulder, her unsually straightened hair (which she did only for him), getting into his face as he did so. It smelled fresh and sweet, like roses, perfume, soap, and...something else. Essence de Ziva, as he called it. He nuzzled his nose against her ear as he barely parted his lips, his breath tickling her as he whispered.

"Shh…Ziva." She nearly died in his embrace at the sound of her name escaping her lips, and Tony felt her relax against him, but just slightly.

"What are you doing?" She mumbled, her sweet accent echoing through the room. He slightly shifted her in his arms as he wrapped one arm tighter around her waist, securing her to his hip. He missed this. Oh so much. He took in another deep whiff of her scent. He missed that the most.

"Doing what's best for us." He whispered back, and he felt small fingers against his. He let her fingers take control of his, their hands lacing together as she melted into his embrace, sleep finally overtaking her, for the first time that night.

**So there you go! Tony and Ziva finally had that talk that all of you have been asking about! *Wipes sweat from forehead* I know it's kinda mushy, and you still haven't found out everything (like the medical file…mwhaha) but they at least talked. So review! **

**Quote:**

"_Oi Va'avoi Li _Tony..." -Ziva


	9. Medical Issues?

The next morning, Ziva was the first one in the bullpen, her mind still reeling from last night. She hadn't expected to wake up and find Tony there…well still there. She hadn't expected herself to be cuddling up to him either, completely submersing herself in his embrace as well as her hand being intertwined with his own. They were sleeping like they slept when they were a couple.

Tony's arms wrapped tightly around her body, her back against his chest, his chin resting on her shoulder, their hands intertwined together….she wasn't expecting them to just automatically revert back to sleeping like that. But that wasn't the beginning of her problems. She had to focus on the case. Solely the case. Not Tony and his uncanny ability to make her want him even more.

"Morning, Gibbs!" She chirped up as she watched him enter the bullpen, coffee in hand. He raised an eyebrow.

"What are you doing here so early?"

"I was just…just going to do some research on the drug dealer and then help out Abby with the forensic evidence."

"Uh huh?" Gibbs asked, almost as if he didn't believe her. She just nodded her head, keeping it up. He took a long sip from his coffee before answering her again, "Well then why are you still here, David?" She visually relaxed, and then bolted out of the bullpen and down towards the forensic scientist's lab.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Abby?" Ziva called as she entered the lab. The music was already blaring as Abby bounded into the room.

"Ziva!" She exclaimed, "I haven't seen you in a while! Why are you here so early?" she asked as she pulled her into a tight hug. She quickly pulled back, and Ziva was confused. Abby never ever did a hug that short.

"What?" Ziva asked, noticing Abby's look on her face as well as the fact that both of her hands were still planted firmly on the Israeli's shoulders.

"You smell like Tony, Ziva." She grinned, "Oh my god, please tell me you two are back together!" She squealed, and Ziva rolled her eyes.

"We are not back together, Abby." She said, firmly, and Abby frowned but then smiled again.

"Oh really? Well then why do you smell like Tony?"

"He spent the night, Abby." She said, "The hotel kicked him out for starting a fight with Lynn. Now, please, could we focus back on the crime?" She asked, and Abby sighed, huffing as she put her hands on her hips.

"Fine, oh Ziva, but we _will _talk about it. Don't you fear, Abby will get to the root of the problem!!" She shoved her finger in the air and then spun around, "Okay! So! Evidence!" Ziva sighed, thankful that she finally changed the subject.

She walked over to the evidence table, standing on the other side that Abby was on. She pulled out the evidence bags, "So these are Lindsey Evans' clothes." She pointed to a bag, "I mean, it was like _filled _with cocaine residue. Motherload." She grinned, "Speaking of mother's." She pulled out another bag, holding it up, "Carly Evans' clothes." She walked over to her computer, "So I was looking through her clothes, and then I realized…hah! I should check her pockets for…you know, traces of anything. So…" She pressed a couple of buttons before a test result from the Mass Spectrometer came up, blinking like normal.

"I am confused…Abby…explain." Abby pressed a couple more buttons. Another screen came up, showing a rather large picture of a Cobra. Ziva jumped back, a couple of feet, her eyes wide. Abby quickly quit out of the screen.

"Ziva? You okay?" She asked, and Ziva nodded.

"I am fine Abby. She had a cobra in her pocket?"

"Yup. Well not an actual cobra, because it's physically and scientifically impossible to place a fully grown cobra in your pocket. So she didn't have a cobra cobra in her pocket, but I found minuet traces of cobra venom in the lining. Not enough to hurt her or anything but still....that's how Lindsey Evans died! An injection of cobra venom into her body! Right at her neck!"

"So you are saying that Carly Evans killed her own daughter?" She questioned, and Abby nodded.

"It's a possibility, yeah."

"Thank you…Abby…" Ziva breathed, taking on quick glance at the monitor before quickly heading out of the lab. Gibbs walked in just seconds later, Caf-Pow in hand.

"You got anything interesting for me, Abs?"

"Yup!" She grinned, "The big bad Mossad officer's afraid of snakes!" She smiled larger at the boss. He just stared at her.

"Anything _relevant, _Abby."

"Oh. Yeah." She walked over to her computer and brought up the same test she had just shown Ziva, "Ran the little trace of something I found in Carly Evans' pants pocket? She had cobra venom."

"That's a good job, Abs." He said, handing her the Caf-Pow as he started out of the lab, "Just don't torment Ziva that much."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Aaron, Tony, Scott, and Lynn walked into the elevator, Lynn moving to the back, Aaron and Scott next, and then Tony in the front. They wanted to keep as much distance between the two agents as possible.

"So where'd you spend the night, Tony?" Aaron and Scott groaned and then immediately put their hands up, ready to grab Tony as he spun around to face her. He did, and they quickly grabbed his arms, holding him back as he glared at her.

"Does it matter, _Garter?_" He demanded, "I could fire you right now on the spot. Tell you to pack your bags and go home."

"But you won't." She grinned.

"You testing me, Garter?" He questioned, okay, more like _demanded. _He was tired of her crap, "We've been here one day. _One day._" He struggled against Aaron and Scott's grip, "And you've already screwed things up."

"Tony. Calm down."

"No. And it's 'boss' to you. Not Tony. Never call me _Tony._" And the elevator doors opened. Aaron and Scott nearly pushed Tony out of the elevator, each keeping their hands close to his back as they steered him towards the bullpen. Ziva stood up as Tony came in, and he quickly motioned for her to leave. Confused, she moved slowly out of the bullpen before she noticed Lynn bringing up the lead. She quickly took off.

"Going to autopsy!" She called as she left the bullpen. Tony took a seat at his desk and Aaron and Scott took their sides at either entrance. They didn't want Tony all of a sudden lashing at their co-worker.

"Morning, team!" McGee announced as he entered the bullpen, smiling at them all before he let his smile drop, "Oh." He said, still grinning a bit, "Nice night?"

Tony growled a little bit, "I don't know. Why don't you ask _Garter?_" He asked.

"You better be asking about where the only living link to these three murders is." Gibbs announced as he walked into the bullpen, glancing only for a second at Tony and his team, who were gathered around his desk.

"Oh. Right, boss."

Gibbs stopped in the middle of the bullpen and then slowly turned around, slumping his shoulders, almost in defeat.

"DiNozzo. How many times do I have to tell you?" He asked, slowly, "I. Am. Not. Your. Boss."

Tony sighed, "Force of habit, boss…I mean…Gibbs."

"Well you pick up anything, _boss_?" He questioned, and Tony stood up, glaring shortly at Lynn (which Gibbs noticed), and then starting towards the silver haired man.

"Nope. Like the little McGoo said…he's got nothing. No cell phone, no credit card, no library card…"

"Ah!" McGee suddenly exclaimed, "Wrong! Someone just used his credit card."

"I thought you said he didn't have one, McGee." Gibbs said, walking towards him.

"Well…not Roberts, no, but someone is using Carly Evans credit card."

"Where?" Gibbs demanded.

"Convenience Store, just off of 95." McGee said.

"Address, McGee!" Gibbs nearly shouted, and Tim quickly scribbled down the address onto a piece of paper. He handed it to Gibbs and then turned to Tony.

"Well DiNozzo, your team or my team going to handle this?"

"How about compromise? My team and your team."

"Who do you recommend, DiNozzo?"

He thought for a moment, "Ziva and I." Gibbs gave just the smallest smirk.

"Missing your partner, are you Tony?" He questioned, and Tony just laughed a little, giving him his famous smile.

"Well you know…"

"Go get her." He said, walking to his desk, grabbing something out of the drawer and then chucking him the keys to the Charger. Tony caught them swiftly and then went over to his desk and geared up, glaring at Lynn as she was staring at him. She turned her head the other way and crossed her arms as he holstered his gun. He then nodded bye to Gibbs, McGee, Keating, and the rest of his team before heading out the back entrance to the bullpen and down towards autopsy.

Suddenly, Tony came running back in and over to Ziva's desk, throwing open her desk drawer and pulling out her badge and her gun as well before he just smiled at Gibbs as he ran back out of the bullpen.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ziva peeked her head into autopsy and smiled as she realized that neither Doctor Mallard or Jimmy Palmer were in the room. Only Carly Evans, lying on the autopsy slab, freshly stitched up. She looked around a little bit before she made her way over to Ducky's desk. She pulled on the drawer and then frowned. It was tightly locked. Looking around a bit more, she pulled out her lock pick and then stuck it in, turning it around a little before she heard it click. She pulled it open as she replaced her lock pick, and then pulled up the top part of the drawer down to the secret compartment she had created overnight while Ducky was away.

Taking a deep breath and looking around some more, she pulled out the manila file. _Anthony D. DiNozzo. _It read across the top: _Medical File. _She opened it up, flipping through the pages of the plague that she had already read. Once she was close to the end, she noticed a couple of pages that looked just thrown in there. A chart, a graph, some other complicated drawings, and then a test. A blood test. A DNA test.

As she read the words at the top of the sheet, she nearly dropped it, her eyes growing wide and her heart rate nearly accelerating through the roof.

"_Oi Va'avoi Li _Tony..." She whispered, in shock, as she heard the elevator doors ping open. Shutting the file quickly, she shoved it back in, closed the compartment and then shoved the desk drawer shut. Right as she turned, she came face to face with Tony DiNozzo.

"Ziva, you okay?" he asked, a confused look painted on his face as he started to look around, "There's no one here, and you look like you've just seen a ghost."

She straightened up, "I am fine."

"Well good…" He said, still unsure of whether or not he should trust her, "Gibbs wants us to stop by this convenience store where Carly Evans credit card was used…"

"Why are we still standing here then?" She questioned, "Let us go, yes?" She said, motioning him out. He nodded, slowly, and then started out, trying to figure out why she was acting that way.

"I brought you your gear." He said, handing it to her.

"Oh. Thank you." She said, holstering her gun and her badge as they entered the elevator, Tony pressing the button for the garage.

"Just like old times." He grinned, and she nodded, giving him a small smile back.

"Yes. Just like old times." She agreed, and they stood in silence in the metal lift. Ziva thought back to what she read in the medical file. How as she ever going to look at him the same way again?

**MWHAHA! You still don't know! Let me tell you though, you will never ever EVER guess it! Review! Because the more reviews I get, the faster I update! Hehe remember that! You'll find out…eventually! But now Ziva knows, so the cat's almost out of the bag! Review if you hate Lynn! Oh, and **_Oi Va'avoi Li _**means 'Oh my god' in Hebrew. And...just to tease you....what Ziva read in the medical file? It could change who Tony DiNozzo is. Completely. And I gave a kinda big hint as to what it is. But I doubt anyone will ever guess it. REVIEW!**

**QUOTE:**

"I hate rain." -Tony


	10. Bolted

The car ride was silent as they drove down the road, the rain pounding on the hood and the windows of the car. Ziva was leaning back in her seat, listening to the calming that was the rain. She thought briefly back to that Medical File. How could he have kept this from them? This was a serious problem that should be brought out into the open. Then again, Tony didn't really let people in like that. Anything deep and he shuts it down. This was deep. Oh this was deep all right. How could he not have told her about this? Weren't they supposed to tell each other everything? Wasn't that what partners were for?

She turned her head to look out of the window, the rain pouring down in streams. Did Gibbs know? What about McGee? Abby? Ducky? Why didn't she know? This changed everything. Everything. Suddenly, the car stopped, and she turned her head to look at her partner.

The car was parked in front of the convenience store, but Tony made no move to get out of the car, "Listen Ziva I…"

"Tony. Save it." She said, reaching for the car door.

"No, Ziva." He pulled on her arm, stopping her halfway, "I.."

"If you are going to talk about Lynn, I do not want to hear it."

"I wasn't going to, Ziva." He said, "I was going to talk about last night."

"What about last night?" She questioned, and he stared at her for a moment or two, studying her eyes. The only sound was the rain on the car.

"What's best for us?"

"Tony, do not do this." She warned.

"I need to."

"Tony." She firmly scolded, "We will talk about this later, I promise you. Right now, we need to focus on the case."

He nodded, "Sorry." He said, and then he let go of her as they both got out of the car, the cold water droplets hitting both of them as they blinked their eyes to see each other. They ran quickly towards the store entrance, ducking under the small canopy, "I hate rain." He muttered as he shook his head a couple of times, to get the rain droplets off of him. Ziva put her hands up and winced away.

"Tony!" She demanded, "Stop it! You're getting me wet!"

"Oh." He mumbled, smoothing his hair down, "Let's just go inside." They opened up the door and stepped into the brightly lit store, looking around. They both squinted a little bit before their eyes adjusted to light. Tony moved over to the counter and shoved his body over the counter top, looking in the backroom. He sighed and then stood back up on his two feet. "No one here." He commented.

Ziva, who was standing behind him, was still scanning the store, "Something feels off." She commented, her voice softer than normal, yet still more on edge.

"Yeah, it's the lighting. They really need to change out these fixtures." He said, pointing to the lights up above him.

"Wrong." Ziva said as she heard the muffled sound of a toilet flush. The door opened in the back and a man walked out; Tony immediately recognized him as Daniel Roberts.

"Freeze! NCIS!" Tony shouted, showing him his badge. And that was it, Daniel Roberts took off.

"NO!" Ziva yelled as she stared chasing after him, her gun drawn.

"Ah! There he goes!" Tony called as he followed Ziva out into the backroom. Daniel threw down a couple of boxes, which Ziva easily jumped over, not even missing a beat in her step as she chased him out of the back door.

"Freeze! Federal Agent!" Ziva demanded as she heard something fall behind her. On instinct, she turned around and saw Tony lying in a heap in front of the boxes. She rolled her eyes, "Tony!" She scolded before she took off around the store to go and catch Roberts.

As she rounded to the front of the store, she stopped in her tracks as she realized that Daniel Roberts was gone. As well as their car. Tony came up behind her, huffing a little bit and drenched in the rain. Ziva threw her hands up in the air in frustration, "Tony! He took our car!"

"Ugh, I really freaking hate rain." Tony complained, out of breath.

"Call Gibbs." She demanded, and Tony pulled out his cell phone.

"I would. But I don't have any signal."

Ziva growled and then kicked the bucket that was sitting by the front door. It was only then that she realized that the store was completely dark. Confused, she went over to the circuit breaker and noticed the torn wires. She slammed the door to the circuit breaker shut.

"What now?"

"He has screwed us here, Tony. He meant for us to be trapped here! He was waiting for us!" She announced as she threw open the door to the store and then started in, the door silently closing behind her. Tony took a few moments before he started in after her. She was behind the counter, slamming the phone down, "The phone does not work." She announced. Groaning in frustration again. She kicked the counter.

"Ziva." Tony softly called, "Ziva I'm sorry." He said as he slowly approached her.

"There is nothing for you to be sorry about. It is my fault. He should not have taken the car, we should have gotten him!"

"What could you have done?" Tony demanded, "Don't blame yourself like you did for McGee when he got shot." He scolded, "Don't you do this."

She wiped a piece of hair away that fell out of her bun as she sank down the side of the counter and sat on the floor. She looked up at him, "How long until Gibbs finds us?"

Tony smirked and sat down next to her, "You tell me. He's your boss."________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"So Carly Evans killed her own daughter?" Aaron asked, from where he sat at Tony's desk.

McGee nodded, "According to Abby, the cobra venom that she extracted from Carly Evans clothes was the same venom that was extracted from Lindsey Evan's shoulder."

"It could have been planted there." Scott pitched in.

"Yeah," Aaron agreed, "Carly finds out who kills her daughter and her daughter's lover, threatens to tell us. Murderer gets even, kills her."

"But if the same person that killed both Lindsey and Sarah killed Carly Evans….why not kill her the same way?" McGee asked.

"Maybe they ran out of venom." Keating spoke up.

"Or." Lynn spoke up, "We look at this a whole new way. Carly knows about her daughter's lesbian affairs with Sarah. But Carly also has feelings for Sarah. So, in order to be with Sarah, she offs Lindsey, but then Sarah threatens to tell. Carly calls the drug dealer, who kills Sarah in San Diego and then they think they're off clean. Until Carly threatens to tell us that Roberts killed both her daughter and Sarah. So Roberts kills Carly."

"Well we'll find out," Aaron said, "Once Tony and Ziva get back."

"Yeah, by the way, where are they?" Gibbs demanded as he walked into the bullpen, "I haven't gotten a call from them and they've been gone for almost two hours."

"I…don't know, boss." McGee admitted. Gibbs just stared at him, "But I will find out…" Gibbs nodded once, "By tracing both of their cells. Triangulating all possible locations." McGee announced as his fingers flew over the keyboard, "Pinging all the cell towers in the DC metropolitan area." He announced, and then his computer beeped, "No hits."

"Expand the search." Gibbs demanded, watching the monitor.

"Still no hits." McGee sighed, "Boss I…." He started, but it was too late, Gibbs was already gone.

"So where's boss?" Scott asked, looking at his teammates.

McGee shrugged, "I don't know. But this isn't the first time they've disappeared off of the grid."

"This has happened before?" Aaron demanded, and McGee nodded.

"Both of them disappeared three years ago. Once when we found them trapped inside a metal shipping container, and then another when they went undercover as married assassins." Lynn felt a tug of jealousy on her heart. Aaron shared a quickly look with his partner.

"How long did it take you to find them the last time?"

"Almost a whole day." McGee sighed, "Maybe more."

**Sorry for the short chapter. But that's all I got right now. Review though! Please! I promise the next chapter will be longer! (Oh, and for next chapter...who else is thinking kissing in the rain?) :D haha  
**

**QUOTE:**

"Tony, when were you going to tell me about this? When were you going to tell anyone?" -Ziva


	11. Let it Rain

Ziva sat in the darkness of the store, leaning up against the side of one of the shelving units. Her head was tilt to the side, looking out the glass door into the rain that continued to pelt down onto the ground. She let out a deep breath and never felt so helpless. Okay, that was a lie, but then again, she hadn't felt this way in a while. Okay, another lie. But still…

She was thrown out of her thoughts by the sound of something scratching across the floor and Tony's angry muttering to himself before she watched as the telephone was quickly pulled off of the counter, thumping onto something and Tony cursing. He appeared from behind the counter, rubbing the top of his head, "Are you going to help?" he demanded angrily.

She sighed and stood up, walking towards him, "What do you want me to do?" She questioned, no happiness evident in her voice.

"Get me some ice." He nearly spat, and she rolled her eyes as she turned around and started walking to the back room. She returned a couple of minutes later with cubes of ice in her hand. She all but threw them at him as he muttered a 'thanks' and then placed them on top of his head. She went back to where she was sitting before, and he stopped her with his words, "Hey." He called, his tone soft now, "I found something."

"Your brains?" She questioned, and he rolled his eyes.

"Not now, Ziva." He said, "I found what Roberts bought with the credit card."

"Yes? And what did he buy?" She questioned, and he held up the receipt in his right hand.

"You'll never guess." He grinned, and she quickly snatched it out of his hands, reading the paper in mere seconds.

"Condoms?" She asked, and he nodded, "Why?"

"Did I buy the condoms Ziva? Do I look like a drug dealer to you?"

She looked him up and down and shrugged, "Hmph."

"Hey, he was trying to tell us something." Tony determined as he started towards the part of the aisle that had the condoms. He grabbed a package off of the shelf and Ziva started after him, "He may have planted something in here for us to find."

Ziva laughed, "Oh yes. That makes sense. Because a drug dealer who possibly killed three people is going to leave us a way to find him in a package of condoms. Oh yes, brilliant. _Genius._" She snatched the condom package out of his hands, which tore. She threw them onto the ground and then started off in a huff asTony furrowed his eyebrows together. What was her problem? He followed her, but still kept his distance.

"Ziva?" He questioned, "Hey, what's wrong. You can tell me. We're partners."

"No." She firmly said, "I can not tell you." She turned her back on him.

He tentatively reached out and touched her arm, just lightly. This caused her to slightly turn towards him, but she still did not look him square in the eyes, "Tell me, Ziva. We're partners."

"And partners are supposed to tell each other everything, yes?" She demanded, turning full on to look at him, searching his eyes for the answer.

Tony hesitated a moment before he nodded his head, "Yeah."

It was that one word that made her snatch her arm out his light grip, "Then we are not partners." She spat before she stormed past him, her shoulder knocking against his as she quickly went out the back door, leaving Tony perplexed, and for him to wallow in his own thoughts.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"McGee!" Gibbs shouted as he walked into the bullpen, causing McGee to nearly jump out of his seat at the abruptness of Gibbs' voice.

"Boss!"

"You got anything on Tony and Ziva?" Gibbs demanded, staring at the blank plasma in front of him, as if he was trying to make it appear with his 'dark magic' (which he only uses for good, not evil).

"I'm trying to track down the GPS coordinates of their phones but…"

"But _what, _McGee?" Gibbs questioned, obviously annoyed with the entire situation.

"Well with the rain…"

"Fix it!" He slammed down his hand on McGee's desk, and he jumped as he tried to stare into Gibbs' icy blue stare. He couldn't. He looked down and to the left.

"But boss I can't just turn off mother nature!"

He glared at him. His famous 'Gibbs stare' before he started out of the bullpen, "You find them, McGee!" His voice boomed, and McGee sighed before he turned back to his computer.

Scott turned to Aaron, whispering quietly in his ear, "At least Gibbs isn't _our _boss."

Aaron nodded, "Yikes."

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tony eventually found Ziva leaning up against the side of the back of the store, the rain drenching her entire body. Her eyes were closed, and her head was pointed towards the sky. She couldn't believe that she was that harsh with him. Tony didn't do anything wrong…maybe she was just upset with the medical file issue as well as the fact that they were stuck out here with no electricity or cell phones, and the fact that her feelings for her partner that she tried oh so hard to bury were resurfacing again.

Her straightened hair was starting to turn into curls, which Tony liked very much. He loved her curls…twirling them in his fingers at night when he couldn't sleep…tugging gently on them to tease her as they watched a movie…he stepped out of the doorway, to walk towards her.

Her eyes flew open the second his foot hit the dirt ground, and she turned her head to face him. She stood up straight, "What?" She questioned as he walked towards her, his green dress shirt getting wet as well as the jeans that he was sporting. She always loved his green dress shirt with thing white stripes…it always brought out the green color in his eyes that she adored.

"Ziva….what's wrong?" Tony asked, "What did you mean back there when you said we weren't partners?"

She sighed and closed her eyes, turning away from him, "You did not tell me, Tony."

"I didn't tell you what?" He questioned, taking a cautious step closer to her. She turned her head to look at him, taking a couple of steps towards him, grabbing onto his lower arm and staring up into his eyes.

She sighed, "When were you going to tell me that you're not a DiNozzo?"

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

McGee slammed his hand down on his desk, getting frustrated at the computer.

"The rain's starting to pick up," Scott announced, trying to lighten the mood of the room. Aaron punched him in the arm and shook his head in a scolding manner.

Tim suddenly stood up, a small smile on his face, "That's it!" He determined, poking a finger into the air.

"What?" Keating asked, standing up.

"The rain!" McGee announced.

"What about it?" Lynn questioned, utterly confused with the entire situation. Scott and Aaron both shared confused looks with their team.

"If they're outside…the rain…it's fried their cell phones!" He announced, "I gotta tell Gibbs!" He said as he hurried out of the bullpen.

Aaron and Scott shared confused looks again with each other.

"If McGee can't find the trace…how is that going to make Gibbs happy?" Lynn questioned.

Scott and Aaron shrugged their shoulders, "I have no freaking idea." Scott laughed.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tony gaped a couple of times before he finally found his voice. He did, however, laugh a little bit, "What?" He questioned, "That's impossible. What are you talking about?"

"I read your medical file." She simply said, "You had DNA tests and a Maternity test done six months before you left for San Diego." She said, letting go of him.

"You mean paternity."

"For the dad, yes?" she questioned, furrowing her eyebrows together.

"Yes…I mean…No…I mean yes. Yes, paternity is for your dad. _Ma_ternity is for your Mom…but that's not the big problem here, Ziva. The problem is that you read my medical file!"

"I just wanted to know about the plague."

"But you read past the plague."

"So?" She questioned, not finding a big deal with the whole situation.

"I thought I told you not to read it!"

"I forgot about it!" She defended herself, "Until you reminded me yesterday!"

"But you still read it!"

"You never told me!" She cried, "What else have you been keeping from me?"

He sighed and ran a hand through his wet hair, "Look, Ziva-"

"No!" She shouted, "Tony, when were you going to tell me about this? When were you going to tell anyone?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yes. It does!" She shouted, "I told you about Tali. I have never told _anyone _about Tali."

"You told me about her the first day we met!"

"Yes, Tony, I did. And I almost felt as if I had made a mistake. I trusted you from day one, Tony. Before I was even on Gibbs team!" She threw her hands up in the air in frustration, "And then I find out about _this. _Oh Tony, I could have helped you."

"Helped me with what? Nothing was going to change the fact that both of my parents were complete idiots."

"Tony." She firmly said, "I know about parents. Aba never really cared for me."

"How can you say that?"

"How can you?" She fought back, "Tony." She firmly said again, "My father nearly forced me into Mossad."

"I thought you said I volunteered."

"Yes, Tony, I volunteered for Mossad because it was either that or being disowned."

"I was disowned when I was twelve." Tony defended himself, "And I turned out just fine."

"In Mossad, being disowned is being thrown out into the streets." She said, trying to stay strong, "Why did you not tell me? That is hard to find out that your parents aren't really your parents."

"My mom's my mom." Tony mumbled, "But it's not my fault she slept around."

"It was hard." She said, softly, "Was it not?"

"Yeah, I guess it was."

"You feel like your Mother did not purposely have you." Tony just looked down at the ground and Ziva knew that she had finally gotten it right, "You think that your family does not and will not love you....because you were a mistake." She could practically feel the pain, and she instantly regretted saying it the moment it escaped her lips, "But you are not a mistake..."

He cut her off, snapping his eyes to hers, "What does that mean to you?"

"You are a DiNozzo. Finding out you were just a 'mistake' to them...it would crush your Alpha male status, yes?"

He scoffed, "I haven't had that since Jeanne." He laughed, "No. Why do you even care so much?"

"Does this really matter that much Ziva?" He demanded, "Does it matter that I'm not really a DiNozzo, and I've been strutting it around for as long as I've lived that 'I'm a DiNozzo?' Does it really matter?"

"Yes!" She nearly shouted out, exasperated. She didn't want to fight with him anymore. It hurt her so much…he didn't even know. Too bad she didn't know he was feeling the same way, "It does!"

"Oh yeah?" He asked, walking towards her, their bodies inches apart, barely any rain able to make it through the space, "And why's that?" She looked down at the ground for a moment. She didn't say anything, "Ziva. Why's that?" He questioned again, this time saying it slower and in a softer more caring tone. She took in a deep breath and then looked up at him as she prepared herself as she broke down the barriers she had managed to somehow keep around herself since he returned from San Diego.

"Because now I feel like I fell for someone I did not really know." she softly said, placing two hands on his shoulders. She sighed and looked up into his eyes as she watched his expression soften. He carefully wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her close to him so that her hips ran into his. She moved her arms so that they locked around his neck as he slowly moved his head down towards her.

"But you knew me all along. Better than anyone." He muttered, her face just inches from hers.

"Obviously not, Tony De Luca." She teased, and she could have sworn that his lips turned up in a small smirk before they crashed against hers. He moved his other hand up her face, the back of his hand caressing her cheek for just a second before he buried his hand into her hair. She moaned against him, and that was his cue. She opened his mouth just as he opened his own, and suddenly there was nothing around them. Not the rain cascading down their backs or the sound of roaring water as it pelted the ground. They let go after a couple of minutes for air, his forehead against hers as they started to breath heavily.

"This is a really bad idea," Ziva murmured.

He laughed, "I don't care."

"Hmm…" She hummed, "How come I have a feeling that I do not either?" She mused, and he grinned.

"I knew you couldn't resist me."

"No. I can resist you." She watched as his smile fell, "But Anthony De Luca? Him I can not resist." She gave a small smirk as he pressed his lips up to hers again, just for a few seconds this time.

"I love rain." Tony grinned and Ziva laughed.

"Of course you do."

"No more secrets?" Tony asked, and Ziva nodded.

"Oh definitely. No more secrets."

"Well then you should know about the tattoo I got on my…"

She punched him lightly in the shoulder, "Tony!"

**HAHA! Didn't think I was going to do it, were ya? But I'm nice. And I was listening to really sappy music...and...I'll admit it. If you didn't know before, or you just weren't really paying attention...I'm a hopeless romantic. (And I've secretly been dying to write their kiss since Chapter 1...LOL!) Mushy stuff! YAY! Review if you liked their kiss! Review review! Make my day! Oh..and just to let everyone know...I don't mean to offend anyone by my writing. If you feel offended by it and you feel that you are very uncomfortable with my writing then PLEASE tell me. Gently. I honestly don't mean to offend anyone. Thank you! :)  
**

**QUOTE:**

"Uh, boss…why are there condoms on the floor?" -McGee


	12. Protection

**Thanks SUPER uber much to C-Rok 0789 for getting me through my little 'writer's block' I had for this chapter! Enjoy! It's for you, C-Rok 0789! : )**

"Hey uh…Gibbs?" Scott asked, from where he was sitting at Tony's desk. He looked up at him but didn't say a word. Realizing that he was in fact not going to speak, he continued, "I think I found Tony and Ziva." He announced, and Gibbs shared a look with McGee.

"Where?"

"Their car's parked outside of a café a couple of blocks from here." McGee's head shot up.

"They're getting lunch?" he questioned, and Scott shrugged his shoulders.

"I hacked into the SatNav in the Charger." he said, explaining his process, "It wasn't that hard."

"Good work, Scott!" Gibbs said, giving him a small smile before he pointed to the door, "Now go. You…take your team. Go, go get them! Bring them back." He demanded, and they all looked at each other, none of them moving, "NOW!" Gibbs barked as they hurriedly grabbed their gear, a chorus of 'Yes, sir.' and 'Yes, boss.' and 'Right away.' started to flow in the bullpen as they geared up and then quickly headed out of the squadroom.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"I call shot gun!" Aaron called as he jumped into the car. Scott rolled his eyes as he got into the driver's seat. Lynn crawled into the back, disgusted by the entire situation.

"Why can't Tony and Ziva just…stop getting lost?" Lynn angrily fumed.

"Or get a room." Aaron smirked as he smiled at his friend.

"It's not funny!" Lynn demanded as Scott started the car, backing it out of the parking space and driving it down the road.

"Lynn," Aaron let out an exasperated groan as he closed his eyes, "How many times do I have to tell you?" He questioned, "Tony will not ever sleep with you."

"And how do you know?"

Scott and Aaron just looked at each other as they turned onto the interstate before they started laughing, "You are seriously asking that question?" Aaron asked, trying desperately to stop laughing.

"What?" She demanded, "What is so funny?"

"Ziva's freaking _hot, _Lynn." Scott reiterated.

Lynn rolled her eyes, "So what? Looks don't matter." This caused Aaron to start laughing even harder.

"You're serious?" Aaron asked, "You're like the queen of 'looks matter'"

"That doesn't make any sense!"

"Neither does you wanting our boss, but then again you're you so…." Aaron nodded and agreed with Scott.

Lynn scoffed again, "Look guys. Ziva may be an attractive woman, but just because she's attractive doesn't mean that Tony should be that attracted to her."

"He obviously likes her for more than just her looks." Aaron supplied, "She seems like a nice enough person."

"And very exotic." Scott added, and Aaron pointed to him and nodded.

Lynn threw her hands up in the air in a frustrated groan before she crossed her arms and gave up, "I bet you two bumbling idiots want to sleep with her too."

Aaron paused for a moment, opening his mouth and then closing it. He shared a look with Scott before they both nodded, "Yeah…well we kinda do." They said sheepishly, as if they were kids who had just gotten caught with cookies before dinner.

"All men are pigs."

"And yet you've slept with half of San Diego." Aaron said, and Scott parked the car.

"Well there's their car." He pointed to the car in front of theirs, looking down at the license plate number, "Plate matches." They got out of the car and Aaron immediately went over to the window, peering in.

"No one inside." He announced.

"Doesn't look like a break-in." Lynn determined from the other side of the car.

"Well then where the hell are Tony and Ziva?" Scott threw his hands up.

They all sighed, leaning up against the side of the car, Scott and Lynn on one side and Aaron on the other, "Okay, someone's gotta call Gibbs." Scott finally said, removing himself from his previous position, and Scott pulled out his cell as he passed it to Aaron.

"Nuh-uh, I'm not calling him." Aaron shook his head in fear as he passed it to Lynn.

"Lynn calls!" They both announced at the same time and she shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"You idiots…" She mumbled as she dialed his number, "Yeah…Gibbs? We found their car and they're not in it….yeah…okay…bye…" She hung up and then turned to her waiting teammates.

"Well?" They asked, and she passed Scott back his phone.

"Gibbs said to get to feed from the SatNav…see if the car can tell where they've been. Get the coordinates and then send it back to him." She said, and Scott reached for the door when he realized it was locked. Aaron and Scott both looked up at each other.

"Anyone good at picking locks?"

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"McGee," Gibbs sighed.

"Yeah, boss? What's up?" He asked, standing up and immediately at attention, his fingers ready over the keyboard.

"Grab your gear." He said, "I think Roberts took their car and they're still at the convenience store." He stood up and geared up as McGee did the same. As Gibbs started out of the bullpen, McGee caught up to the boss, "DiNozzo's team…" He started.

"Yeah, what about them?"

"They're a bunch of idiots, McGee." He said as McGee gave a small smile, the elevator doors opening as they walked in.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tony and Ziva sat on the cold floor of the store, their backs up against the cash register counter. Both their shoulders and their thighs were up against each other, and they both loved the feeling that was running through them. Ziva's knees were slightly pulled up to her, whereas Tony's were lying flat on the ground in front of him. Between them their hands were intertwined together, but their hands were always moving; they never stopped as they kept changing them time and time again.

Tony was wide awake, whereas Ziva was far from it. She was starting to get sleepier by the second, and she was struggling to keep not only her eyes open but also her head up. Her head rested someplace between where it should be and Tony's shoulder, but she was never actually touching it.

"Ziva?" Tony questioned, his voice soft, breaking her out of her sleeping spell. She opened up her eyes and sat up.

"Hmm?" She asked, still slightly asleep from before.

"I'm hungry." He whispered into her ear and she moaned.

"Tony, there are many things to eat here. Pick something." She said, wanting nothing more than to fall asleep. She let her head finally drop onto his shoulder, and at the same moment he stood up, taking her with him. She steadied herself as she became awake now that she was standing up and a little drier than before. He let go of her hand and then ran over to the sweet section of the store.

"Hmmm…look what they have here!" He exclaimed, "Clowny cakes…" She heard a rustling of bags, "Chocolate snack-ems! Ooooh goodie! They have them all!" He squealed, and Ziva had to smile…just a little, "Oh pinch me now!" He exclaimed, and she smirked as she walked over and quickly nipped him the butt. He jumped.

"Ouch! Ziva!" He exclaimed, "What was that for?" He asked, turning to face his partner, rubbing the sore area.

She shrugged, "What? You told me to pinch you now…I did!"

"It's an expression…Zee-vah." He said, and then he pointed to a box on top of the refrigerator carrying to beverages, "Look!"

"What?" She asked, walking closer towards the box in order to read the label on it that Tony was staring at with such wide eyes, "I see a cardboard box…"

"Not just any cardboard box…" He grinned, "A cardboard box filled with…_donuts._"

"Tony, there are donuts right here!" She exclaimed, pointing to the package of powdered donuts by her feet, next to the condoms that she had accidentally torn and spilled all over the floor, "Next to your 'magical condoms'."

"Hey!" He exclaimed, and then he ducked down, squatting over, as he pointed to his back, "Jump on my back." He grinned, and she stared down at him.

"You serious?" She questioned, and he nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, jump on my back! Then I can hoist you up and you can get the donuts for me!" He said, grinning…once again.

She rolled her eyes, "Tony!" She firmly said, "There are donuts _right there!_" She pointed to the donuts on the ground.

"No, no, these are raspberry filled!" He exclaimed, "From Krispy Kreme's!" He pointed to his back again, "Now come on, jump on my back." She sighed as she climbed onto his back, his shirt still slightly wet as she straddled him. He huffed as he hoisted her up, "Jeez, Ziva, how much do you weigh?"

"Do you want me to get the donuts or not?" She growled as he struggled under her, holding onto her by her calves. Once she was up as high as she could, she couldn't reach it, so she reached forward only to get the box as well as slip off of Tony's shoulders.

"Ziva!" He called as she let go of the box of donuts, which went flying into another part of the store. She immediately followed down, this time landing on Tony, who hit the ground with a large boom. She was lying on him, her face flat on his chest as Tony groaned, "Ouch." he mumbled, rubbing his head.

"Ziva…you okay?" He questioned, and she just turned her head slightly to the side.

"It is a good thing I do not have any desire to kill you right now." She threatened.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

By the time that McGee and Gibbs got to the convenience store, it was almost sunset, and they wanted to get back before dinner. (Gibbs was starving). They parked the car and got out.

"Lights are off." McGee announced as they started towards the front entrance.

"I can see that, McGee." Gibbs confirmed.

"Looks like no one's…" He started, but was cut off by the sound of a boom. They both immediately drew their guns and Gibbs got in front of his junior field agent. Guns at the ready, Gibbs turned slightly to McGee and nodded him the okay before he kicked the door open, jumping inside, his gun pointed at the noise. McGee jumped in after him, and Gibbs sighed as he realized who it was. Or who _they _were…and he definitely didn't like the predicament that they were in.

His senior field agent was lying on the floor, Ziva on top of him, her mouth placed right where his top was unbuttoned.

He sighed and then holstered his gun as McGee did the same.

"Oh hey, boss!" Tony chirped as Ziva opened her eyes and got up.

"What the hell did you two think you were doing?" He asked as they both stood up and wiped the dirt off of themselves.

"I'm eating donuts." He grinned, and Gibbs sighed, disappointed.

"And I'm guessing Ziva was the donut?"

Tony and Ziva looked nervously at each other, "Uh…boss, can't you just take us home?" Tony asked, and Gibbs stepped towards him before he promptly whacked him in the back of the head.

"OW!" he exclaimed, "What was that for?"

"Two reasons. One, for calling me boss, and two for letting Roberts take your car!"

"I know, boss." He said, and Gibbs put his hand up threateningly, "Get in the car." he demanded, and Tony quickly moved out of the way of Gibbs, through the front door. Gibbs turned to Ziva, "Go too." He said, and she followed her partner out of the store. As the boss turned to leave, he called for McGee, "McGee. Come on, let's go."

"Uh…boss?" He questioned, and Gibbs sighed, turning slightly.

"What, McGee?" He asked, exasperated.

"Why are there condoms on the floor?" He asked, and Gibbs gave a small smirk.

"Do you want to ask, McGee?" He questioned, and He shook his head.

"No boss but…"

"Then come on, let's go." He motioned for him to follow him out of the store, for he knew that Tony and Ziva were probably more than ready to come home.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"There you guys go!" Abby announced as she wrapped them both in towels. Tony removed his and dried his hair before he chucked it back at his forensic scientist.

"Thanks, Abs!" he winked, "I owe you one!"

"How about a Caf-Pow?" She asked, as he grinned.

"Tomorrow." He said, and she nodded, bouncing up and down.

"Okay, Tony!" she hopped as Tony turned to his partner. He pinched one cheek lightly, grinning like an idiot before he finally left.

"See you upstairs David." He called. Abby watched closely as the elevator doors closed, waving at the senior field agent for as long as she could before she grabbed Ziva and pulled her out of the doorway and around near her mass spectrometer.

"What?" Ziva asked as Abby squealed.

"Tony _so _flirted with you! You guys are so close to getting back together if you aren't already!" She hopped up and down, and Ziva rolled her eyes.

"Abby, Abby stop." She commanded, "Look…" She looked around a little, making sure that no one was there, "If I tell you something personal, will you _promise _not to tell?" She questioned, and Abby nodded repeatedly.

"You're back together, aren't you, answer me, please! Please please!" She squealed.

She sighed and then whispered, "Yes, we are back together…but…" She was cut off by Abby's screaming and more jumping up and down. Ziva rolled her eyes.

"Abby!" She commanded, "Abby!" She demanded, her tone more definite and strict. She stopped immediately.

"Okay, tell me all the juicy details." She squealed, "Did you guys kiss or something?"

"Yes, we got into a fight and then we just…" She sighed and looked at Abby, who had the biggest smile in the world on her face.

"AWW! Where? In that store?" She questioned, obviously wanting to know all of the juicy details.

"Actually, outside."

Ziva thought that Abby was going to die, "Outside?" She questioned, "In the _rain?!" _She questioned again, "OH. My. GOD!" She shouted, "That's _so _Noah and Allie!" Ziva furrowed her eyebrows together, "You know, from the Notebook!" She squealed, and Ziva was still confused.

"What notebook?" She questioned, and Abby rolled her eyes.

"So tell me about the fight before that." She said, changing the subject, "What did you two fight about?"

She looked around again, "I found a couple of tests." She said, "In Tony's medical file."

"What kind of tests?"

"DNA tests and paternity tests." She said, simply, "As well as some other tests."

"Oh my god…Ziva…" She gasped, "What's wrong with Tony?"

"Nothing's wrong with him. I guess I freaked out because well…" She leant over and whispered into her ear, so softly barely Abby could hear it, "Tony's not really a DiNozzo. His mother slept around."

"So he doesn't know who…"

"Oh he does know who the Dad is." She reiterated, "He very much knows."

"Oh my god…our Tony! Ziva! And you yelled at him about this?" She questioned.

"I know what it is like." She said, "I have been through it once before." She said, "I thought I could help…lighten to situation."

"Obviously it worked." She grinned, and Ziva sighed…again. She didn't understand Abby and her obsession with their relationship, "Oh Tony…."

She sighed, "Abby you can _not _tell anyone about this." She said, "Abby you have to swear to me."

She nodded, "My lips are sealed! I promise I won't say a thing!" She said, 'zipping' her lips closed.

Unbeknownst to either of the two women, Lynn Garter was standing outside of the door, eavesdropping on their entire conversation, "Oh." She whispered evilly, "I promise I will."

**HAHA! So Lynn knows…but she misinterpreted it! Haha I smell trouble… And I just watched the promo for 'Knockout'…GIBBS. SLAPS. ARE. BACK! Joy to the world! I loved Tony's line: "I forgot what that felt like!"**

**Review if you are as excited as I am that head slaps are B.A.C.K!**

**QUOTE:**

"Ziva's WHAT?!" -McGee


	13. Screw the Pooch

Special Agent Marilynn Garter stepped out of the elevator, scanning her eyes over the nearly empty bullpen of the NCIS Washington DC headquarters. There sat McGee, his fingers flying over the keys as normal (she swore she never saw him doing anything else), his eyes boring into the computer screen like they were glued there.

In the fifth desk, away from the rest, was the strange man (at least, according to Lynn), that was in fact Daniel Keating. Rather an odd man, she thought, but then again, when was she ever wrong about judging people?

Gibbs desk was empty, and so was Ziva's, but Tony's was occupied by himself. She let out in inward sigh of content.

Personally, she thought that he was really sexy with wet hair, a couple of droplets dripping down his face and onto his green dress shirt that complemented his entire make-up. He had a small smile on his face as he dried his hair with one hand, a blue towel donned in his grip, and his other starting up his computer.

He looked up at her as she stood in the middle of the bullpen, and she watched in dismay as the smile he had on his face turned into a frown in a matter of milliseconds.

"Something you want, Garter?" He questioned, spitting out her last name.

She shrugged her shoulders, "Just wondering what to do, boss."

"Well you can get out of my sight, unless you want to stick around a little more and get fired." McGee stopped typing and looked up at the conversation now.

"Boss…" She started, and then he stood up.

"No!" He shouted, pointing a finger at her, "You wanna do something? You find Roberts!" And with that, he stormed off, leaving Lynn to sigh.

"You know he really doesn't act like that." McGee said, trying to reassure her. He honestly didn't know why.

She rolled her eyes and put her hand up as if to wave him off, like it was no big deal, "Oh well, he's just probably upset that his girlfriend sleeps around."

McGee let his jaw drop a little bit, "Hold on…Ziva?" He questioned, "They're back together?"

"Yeah." She said, turning to him, "You didn't know?" She walked a little towards the junior field agent, and he shook his head.

"No…but Ziva wouldn't…" He looked down, "Not to Tony…" He looked back up at her, "Wait…how do _you _know this?"

"I overheard a conversation with Abby." She said, shrugging her shoulders again, "Apparently she's pregnant, and the baby's not Tony's."

McGee turned fully in his seat, "Ziva's WHAT?!"

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"No, you idiot. Press this button." Scott said, pointing to the black button.

Aaron, who was sitting next to him sighed, "Dude." He said, "No. You press the red one."

"Look at the manual!"

"I am!" He said, shaking the booklet in his lap, "It says to press the red button to send the feed back."

"Wouldn't it just be easier to call boss?" Scott asked, "Obviously we can't figure out SatNav to save our lives."

"Hey!" Aaron suddenly shouted out, stopping Scott, his finger just inches from the button, "Don't you press that! It will delete everything!" He looked down at the car, "You know, we shouldn't even be sitting in here. We should be looking for Roberts."

"Oh." Scott said, "Yeah. Come on, let's go."

"Café?" Aaron asked, and Scott nodded his head.

"Yeah, let's check there first."

As they got out of the car, Aaron smiled, "Maybe they'll have some cherry pie there."

He scoffed and rolled his eyes, "You're such an…" He then grinned, "Oh. Yum! Cherry pie!"

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Director Leon Vance sat in his office, signing off numerous numbers of forms. _Just a few more. _He thought to himself as started through the piles of sheet after sheet.

Suddenly, he heard the door open, and he didn't even bother looking up, "That's what they have intercoms for, Cynthia." He rolled his eyes.

"Not Cynthia." He heard a male voice say, rather softly, and he looked up to come face to face with Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

He sighed as Gibbs closed the door and walked towards his desk. He put his pen down, closed the files, and leant back in his seat, "Agent Gibbs. That is why Cynthia is there."

"Hmm, really?" He questioned, shrugging his shoulders, "Never heard that one before."

"Coming into my office like that may have worked with Director Shepard, but she's dead Jethro, she isn't coming back."

"I know that." He said, pausing a moment before he answered.

"So why are you here? DiNozzo driving you nuts already?"

"DiNozzo is my best agent." He stated, trying to keep his anger down in his voice. He was still upset for Leon passing the promotion right under his nose.

"He _was _your best agent, Gibbs. He's not anymore. Team leader. Needed the change."

"Already had it." He fired back, "When you sent him out to sea…as a punishment. Remember, _Leon_?"

"It wasn't a punishment."

"Oh really? Well then what do they call it now?" He demanded, and Vance sighed.

"Something I can help you with, Agent Gibbs?" He walked closer to him and put two hands on his desk, leaning forward a little.

"Yeah, you can give me background research on Tony's team."

"Not gonna happen." He looked him straight in the eyes.

"And why not? You have their files."

"You're gonna have to ask Agent DiNozzo for that one. And the sooner that he and his team leave for San Diego, the better."

Gibbs stood up straight and backed away a little, "What did DiNozzo do to you anyways, Leon?"

"What makes you think he did anything?" He questioned, "And why are you questioning my moves? 7 years as an agent, he needed new scenery. Looked over his records, never stayed with one department for more than a couple of years."

"Yeah, you ever think about why he stayed here?" Gibbs demanded, and Vance stood up and walked over to the liquor cabinet, pulling out two glasses and pouring them each a shot of bourbon. He handed one to Gibbs, who carefully took it but didn't drink it. Vance took a sip before he answered.

"Besides Officer David?" He asked, and even Gibbs let his eyes falter for a moment as Vance twirled the glass in his hand, the liquor slightly spinning as he did so.

"If he did stay because of her." Gibbs started, after a couple of moments of silence passed, "Then why'd he take that promotion?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "Wanted a different environment to work with."

"Ah," Gibbs gave a small smirk, "I understand. You still believe they screwed the pooch in LA."

"Jenny was dying." He said, but Gibbs didn't comment, he just finished what he had started earlier, before Vance interrupted.

"And then when they infiltrated Norad with Lee you thought they screwed the pooch again, didn't you, Leon?"

"I.."

"And then with McGee? You knew that Ziva was going to break, and that they were falling apart, so you decided it was best to give Tony the promotion. Once they broke up and you noticed their behavior was different you gave him the way out. And he took it. And I lost one of my damn agents because of you Leon! My best! And now I'm stuck with a computer geek who is almost as scared of a gun as Lee was, a Mossad Liaison Assassin who has mood swings, and…McGee! He was my best agent, he's my only agent. I want my only agent back!"

"You know how I feel about intimacy between co-workers."

"I do." He said, "But that's not the problem."

"I also have a strict policy about bringing work home with me."

"They're not coming home with you," Gibbs said, "But that's not the problem. The problem is you sending off my agent because of your damn policies! Well their my agents, Leon, they follow my rules."

"Or they don't. I know they broke one of your rules. Rule 11 was it? Never date a co-worker? Heard McGee talking about it on the phone just a couple of weeks ago."

"12." Gibbs corrected.

"So you're aware of it to then?" Vance asked, "Seems like we have something in common." He said, making a note of that to store in the back of his mind.

"And something we don't; _DiNozzo_." He commanded, wanting to know why he was sent away at such a short notice.

"He seems to be doing fine in San Diego." Vance shrugged, "He made his decision. If you didn't like it, you should have dealt with it sooner."

"Yeah, well, Leon, seems like I didn't get that memo, did I?" He said, as he started towards the door.

"Agent Gibbs." He stopped him, and he slightly turned.

"Leon?"

"You give me proof that your team needs him back." Vance said, "And I'll…" He sighed, "Ask him if he wants his job back."

Gibbs smirked, "Proof?" He questioned as he opened up the door, "Just send up Ziva," and with that he started out of the door, pausing in the doorway, turning back to him just slightly, "You don't mess with my team, Leon." He said, piercing him with his blue eyes before closing the door behind him.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Scott burped as he came out of the café, "Ew!" Aaron said, smacking him on the arm, "What the hell was that?"

"That pie was good."

"Maybe we should get back." Aaron asked, looking around a little, "I don't think that…" He stopped as he saw the man that was walking towards the Charger. He reached for his gun.

"Whoa, what are you doing? Look…I'm sorry about burping dude, but I thought that was okay…"

"Scott." Aaron hissed, "Look at the man walking towards our car." He muttered under his breath, and Scott looked up.

"Roberts." They both said at the same time, Scott reaching for his gun as well, taking it out of his holster.

"Okay, you take that side, I'll take this side. Sneak up on him." Aaron whispered as they crouched down a little, ducking behind trees, hiding behind people, and trying to blend in. It was then that they were close to the car, Scott on the side of another car next to the Charger, his gun at the ready, and Aaron on the other.

They let their eyes meet for just a second or two before they both nodded at each other, "FREEZE! Federal Agents!" Scott yelled as he jumped out, scaring Roberts. He quickly backed up and turned the other way, only to come head to head with the barrel of Aaron's gun. He almost immediately started to sweat as he turned the other way, where Scott was slowly walking towards him, "Don't move!" He called.

"We just wanna talk, Daniel." Aaron supplied, and then he started to hyperventilate.

"I didn't do it! I didn't do it! You can't! No! No! NO!" He said, as he started to lose control of his movements. He braced himself against the car, "I…I…I…I didn't do it!" He shouted again.

"Daniel, we just wanna talk." Aaron repeated again, and then he promptly fell the ground from lack of air, and he started to cry a little bit as he wiggled on the ground.

"No! No! No! NO!" He shouted over and over again as the two agents holstered their guns again, Aaron pulling out the handcuffs and placing them on the Daniel Roberts that Scott managed to grab and pull up off of the ground. As they opened up the door and shoved him in, they turned to each other.

"And you thought that Lynn was nuts?" Aaron asked, and Scott just laughed as Scott took the driver's seat, Aaron going around, locking the doors.

"Dude, boss is going to be so proud of us…you wanna know what that means?" Scott asked, and Aaron grinned as he turned to his friend.

"No paperwork!" They both yelled at the same time, giving each other high fives before Aaron took off, the tires squealing in the process.

**___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________**

**So sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've been super sick. I'm not better at all. But I feel kinda bad for not updating. So here you go! Review please! I love you all, I do! **

**QUOTE:**

"Cynthia. Send up Officer David." -Vance


	14. Case Closed

"We…we won! Yeah, yeah, we won!" Aaron and Scott chanted as the elevator doors open.

"What did we win?"

"Daniel Roberts!"

"What did we win?!" Aaron yelled again as they happily moved through the squadroom, one agent on either side of the drug dealer who didn't look to happy to be there, unlike his escorts.

"Daniel Roberts!"

"I can't hear you!" He sang.

"DANIEL ROBERTS!" They both yelled at the same time, and by the time that they stopped in the middle of the bullpen, the entire squadroom was silent and immobilized, staring at the three. Two of them grinning like complete idiots.

McGee just sat in the bullpen, looking up at them in utter confusion, just like the others that were there.

"What is that noise, McGee? What the hell is going on over here?" Tony groaned as he appeared around the corner before he stopped.

"Hey boss!" They both cheered as they turned around and saw Tony DiNozzo standing in the entrance of the bullpen.

"We've got you a present!" Scott said, shaking Daniel's arm violently, causing the drug dealer to groan.

Tony just grinned and opened his arms wide, "Daniel Roberts!" he said, walking towards him, slapping him on the back, "How are you? Doing great aren't ya? Yeah, thought so." He patted his cheek, "Escort him down to interrogation. Davis, Lewis…nice work! No paperwork for you guys."

"All right!" They gave each other high fives before they started out of the bullpen.

"We…we won! We, we, we won!" They started chanting again as they exited towards the other elevator.

"Hey! Wait!" Tony called, and they stopped and slightly turned, but were still smiling. He sighed, "Did you two eat pie or something?"

"Yeah, yeah!" They nearly screamed, and Tony shook his head.

"What did I tell you about eating pie?"

"It was cherry, boss!" Scott called.

"Who could resist?" Aaron finished before they started walking again.

Tony grinned and turned to McGee, "McGoo! Isn't this great! My team is just…." He clapped his hands together, making sound effects in the process, "getting it done!"

"Look, Tony, I need to talk to you." He said, quietly, and Tony slightly tilted his head to the side, a little confused, a little worried, and his spirit a little dampened.

McGee looked around and then leaned in a little bit, "It's about Ziva…." He sighed, and Tony's eyes immediately became on red alert at the sound of his partner…oh yeah, _former _partner's name. He forgot.

"What about Ziva?" He questioned, getting a little angry, "What did you do to her?" He demanded, taking a step towards him. McGee quickly sat up and moved back, putting his hands up.

"I didn't do _anything _Tony! Okay?" Tony stopped, but didn't unclench his fists.

"What. Happened. To. Ziva?"

"Nothing happened to her, all right? Now I just…"

"DiNozzo." he suddenly heard his name being called, and he looked up at the balcony to see Gibbs standing up there. Using one finger, he motioned for him to come.

"Actually boss," He said, starting away from McGee and towards Gibbs, "Davis and Lewis just got Daniel Roberts. They have him in interrogation right now. I have to go…you know, interrogate. Wanna watch?" He grinned, and Gibbs just gave a small smirk as he started away, following Tony.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Aaron and Scott stood in observation, grinning like idiots. The door to observation opened and Lynn stepped in.

"So." She said, as she closed the door and walked over to them, standing between the two, "Looks like you two actually did something good…for once. Boss should be proud."

"Oh he is." They grinned, "No paperwork."

"Ah. I see." She said, looking at the nervous Daniel Roberts in interrogation. He was clenching his hands together and looking around, his eyes not setting on one thing for more than a couple of seconds, "You know," She sighed, "I heard something today that you guys probably aren't going to like."

"What? No more pie?"

She sighed, "Oh my god, don't tell me you guys ate _pie._"

"Yup, yup yup!" They grinned, bouncing up and down.

She groaned, "You guys are complete idiots. What did the boss tell you about that? Remember what happened at the last Christmas party?"

"Oh yeah…" They laughed, "Good times…_good _times."

"You nearly set the entire agency on fire with your stupid sparklers, and you ran around the entire bullpen singing Christmas Carols with those fire hazards in your hands. Not to mention the 'punch' incident."

"All right, let's not go there, Lynn." Aaron waved off, "So what did you have to tell us?"

"That Ziva's pregnant." She said, simply, stepping back a little with a smirk on her face.

Aaron and Scott both shared smiles, "Hey! Well isn't our boss lucky! He's gonna be a Dad!" Aaron smacked Scott's shoulder, "Hey! He should name one after us!"

"Or pie…have it be a girl and name her Cherry!"

"Mmm…yeah…or Blueberry."

"Strawberry?"

"Apple."

"Mmm…." Scott rubbed his stomach.

"Enough already!" Lynn finally groaned, throwing her arms up into the air, "Look, Tony doesn't know!"

"Well then why don't you tell him?" Aaron asked, shrugging his shoulders, "I'm sure he'll be happy."

She just gave a small smile, "Hm. I'm sure he will." She said, "I'll go tell him right now."

"Okay, bye!" They called as she left observation.

"You know, she seemed kind of happy that Ziva was pregnant with Tony's child." Scott commented, still in a little dreamy state.

"Yeah…it's almost like…" They suddenly stopped and slowly turned to each other, "Something's wrong." Aaron announced.

"I know…no pie." He sobbed.

"Enough with the pie!" He nearly screamed, "Lynn seemed _happy _about Tony and Ziva."

"Uh oh. She didn't….while Tony was with us she didn't….how could she…uh oh." They both turned towards the door and bolted out of it at the same time, screaming as they entered the hallway, "LYNN!"

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The elevator doors opened and Tony appeared, case file in hand, ready to complete the interrogation of Daniel Roberts. He walked out and ran smack into Lynn.

"Hey, Tony!"

He groaned, "How many times do I have to tell you, _Garter, _that you address me as 'boss' and solely 'boss'?"

"Obviously too many. Look, I have to talk to you about something…it's Ziva."

"Look, I've had enough of your lies about Ziva, okay?" He asked, pushing by her as he tried to make his way to the interrogation room.

"No, Tony, you have to listen!" She jumped in front of him again.

"Garter!" He nearly shouted, and this stopped her dead in her tracks, "You're lucky that I'm keeping you around for this long. After this case, I don't know whether or not you'll be sitting in that bullpen in San Diego or if you'll be working the Drive Thru at Burger King! So if I were you, I'd be wise and try to at least do something to make me proud of you, all right?"

"LYNN! LYNN!" Aaron and Scott called, and Tony rolled his eyes.

"What now?" he muttered as they came running towards the blond, unaware that Tony was on the other side of the corner.

"Don't tell him Ziva's pregnant!" They exclaimed at the same time, and Lynn watched as Tony's eyes became wide.

"What?" He laughed a little, "You guys are joking. Funny. Now can I move on?" He asked, and they just all looked up at him with serious eyes, "Ziva can't…we haven't…"

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Director Vance paced around his office, thinking about what Gibbs had just told him. Tony and his team would be leaving soon, Gibbs never spent this long on a case. Never more than a couple of days.

He opened and closed his fists, contemplating what he wanted to do. Finally, he made his decision. He shoved his chair away and jammed his finger onto the intercom button.

"_Yes, Director?" _He heard Cynthia ask.

"Cynthia. Send up Officer David." He demanded.

"_Right away, Director." _She said before hanging up. Vance had to make his decision before Gibbs solved the case and Tony's team went home. And Ziva was Gibbs proof.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Gibbs walked into interrogation, case file in hand. He was a little…okay, _very_ surprised when Tony had suddenly come up to him and called the interrogation off, saying that he wasn't mentally ready to take on the drug dealer. He seemed so happy, and he knew that that just wasn't his senior field agent. And he hadn't changed _that _much while he was in San Diego. Maybe a little bit older, maybe a little bit wiser, definitely a little bit sadder, but not enough to completely change who he was.

Jethro took a seat in front of the drug dealer, putting the case file on top and then scooting in as far as he could. He placed his hands on top of the table, clenched together.

"I didn't do it!" Roberts shouted.

Gibbs shrugged his shoulders, "Depends on what you're talking about." It was the drug dealer who was confused.

"I didn't do it!" he shouted again.

"Didn't do what?"

"Why am I here?"

"You tell me." There was silence in the interrogation room, and Gibbs silently pulled out three photos, the first of Lindsey Evans, the second of Sarah Taylor, and the third of Carly Evans. He placed them in front of him, "Three women. All dead. You know 'em?" He asked, and Daniel just glanced at them before looking back down at the hands in his lap.

"No." He mumbled.

Gibbs just nodded and gave a small smirk before reaching into the folder and pulling out phone records with highlighted numbers. He pushed it towards him, "Really? Because it seems that they all had contact with you." He said, pointing to the numbers.

"Okay, so maybe I know 'em. But they just wanted to make a sale, that's all."

"Well they're all dead."

"I didn't do nothing." He said, putting his hands up, "I…I….I didn't do nothing."

Gibbs pursed his lips together and nodded, "Yeah…you know, it's about five years in jail for drug dealing, but it's about fifty for murder." he gestured to the photos, "But the way that you're looking at it, seems to be like you're gonna be there for…quite a long time."

"I didn't do it."

"Didn't do what?" He questioned, and he didn't say anything, "Where were you Tuesday night?"

"I was uh…in San Diego."

"Oh really? Because that's where Sarah Taylor was found murdered as well." He again, didn't say anything, and Gibbs leant forward, "Carly Evans contacted you, didn't she? Told her to off Taylor so that her daughter could be with a man. She was a lesbian…"

"I knew that." He spat.

"Yeah? And how'd you feel about it?"

"What was there to feel about it? They loved each other. They made deals with me, that's all I cared about."

"Any of these deals ever involve…sex?"

"No." He quickly said, "They paid me with cash in advance. That's all I wanted."

"So you do know who they are." He said, and the drug dealer looked like he got caught.

"Yeah."

"Let me get this straight, Roberts, you sell drugs to Sarah, Lindsey, and Carly. Carly doesn't want her daughter marrying a woman, she has sex with you so that you'll go out to San Diego to kill Sarah. You kill Sarah, call Carly and tell her that your job's complete. Lindsey hears, finds out, and, in order to keep her from telling the police she kills her the exact same way you killed Sarah. Carly threatens to turn you in, you get even and sneak into her house and murder her." Gibbs finished, and Roberts looked down before he started to have a panic attack.

"I…I…I didn't do it…I didn't do it…"

"You took two women's innocent lives!" He shouted as he continued to shake, his limbs violently moving. He started to fall out of the chair.

"I didn't do it! I didn't do it! No! No! NO!"

"You're under arrest, Daniel Roberts, for the murders of Sarah Taylor and Carly Evans." Gibbs muttered under his breath as he picked him up off of the ground and slapped the handcuffs on, shoving him towards the door. As he walked out, McGee and Keating came out of observation, "Case closed."

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Gibbs took another sip from his beer as he wiped the sweat off of his forehead using the back of his hand. He stared at his boat before he picked up the sander and walked towards it, running his hand along it before he finally chose a spot that he liked. He moved and stood on a workbench as he started to sand down the wood.

He heard the familiar sound of his front door open and close followed by the creak in the top stair of his basement stairwell, but he didn't both looking up, knowing exactly who it was, "Surprised it took you so long." He said, still not looking up as he moved around his boat to the other side.

They started down the stairs, slowly before they walked into the light, "It's been a while." He commented, still not looking at his intruder.

"Yeah, it has." Tony mumbled, his hands in his pockets, "Still working on the old boat, are we? What is this, your fourth one?"

He shrugged, "I haven't counted."

Tony shifted his weight on his feet, looking down at the ground, "So Roberts did it?"

"Yup." That was his simple answer, nothing more. They both stood in silence for a little, "Drink?" Gibbs suddenly asked.

Tony perked his head up, "Oh, no thanks." He motioned his hand away, and Gibbs just got down, making his way over to the work bench and grabbing the half empty bottle of Whiskey. He then grabbed two jelly jars, dumping out the nuts and bolts in both of them before pouring each of them half of a jar. He gave him one, knowing that he needed it, and Tony sighed but took it anyways.

"You didn't come here just to stand there." Gibbs noted, "Talk." He knew him so well. He knew he couldn't hide anything from him.

"It's Ziva." He finally blurted out, and Gibbs plopped down onto a work bench, putting the jar to his lips and drinking his Whiskey as a way to mask his smirk. _Always is. _Once he downed the glass in one sip, he turned to look at him.

"Well? What about her?"

"When I was gone…" He started, looking down at the glass, tapping his fingers on the side of the material, "Did she seem…different to you?"

Gibbs shrugged and looked forwards before looking back at him, "Describe different."

"I don't know…different. You know, out of it. Kinda off."

"Well yeah, DiNozzo." He said in a tone that definitely told Tony that that was a stupid question to have asked, "If by different you mean not wanting to interrogate suspects or go out in the field or having any sort of conversation that wasn't necessary than yeah, she acted different."

Tony laughed, "Ziva?" He questioned, "No. Come on Gibbs."

"She missed you, Tony." Gibbs said, "I…" He looked down at the empty glass in between his legs, "She didn't look like her."

"What did she look like?" Tony asked, curious now, "Like who did she look like? Like in the movies?"

Gibbs just laughed as he patted the seat next to him, scooting over. Tony tentatively took his seat next to his boss before he finally settled in, "To be honest, DiNozzo, she looked like she did when I looked into the mirror…" He took in a deep breath, "After they died."

_'They'._

He didn't need to say anything else. Tony's heart nearly dropped to the ground, "She wasn't…" he paused for a moment, "She's pregnant, boss." He said, turning his head away from him.

"No she's not." He shook his head.

"Oh yeah?" Tony fired, turning quickly back around, "And how do you know?"

"I had a kid before, Tony, remember? Woman gets a certain look in her eyes, starts acting a certain way…she wasn't pregnant Tony. I would have known about it."

"But what if she-"

"She didn't sleep with anyone else." Gibbs reassured him.

"How do you know?" Tony fired back again.

"Because you didn't see her." He simply said, standing up and walking towards his boat.

"But boss…" Tony let it die. Gibbs sighed and looked up at the ceiling.

It happened.

He knew it would eventually. He guessed it was about the right time. It was them together, it was McGee getting shot, it was Tony running away from it all, and their separation time that brought everything full circle again. If they were getting back together, if they _were _back together, they definitely were made for each other. He and Jen broke up but never got back together…hence Rule Twelve. But Tony and Ziva had some kind of invisible bond that Gibbs didn't have the guts or the heart to break.

He turned to look at his senior field agent, who was looking down at the ground, the Whiskey glass in his hand still untouched, "You love her…don't you?"

"Doesn't matter anymore." He quietly said, standing up, "If I tell her how I feel, it won't matter. The case is over. We're going back to San Diego."

Gibbs almost felt his heart break a little for not only himself but for Ziva. He put the glass down onto the work bench, "Thanks for the drink." He muttered before he started out of the basement, his hands pushed back into his pockets.

"Hey, DiNozzo." He called out, and he paused, turning only slightly back towards him. He sighed, "We'll miss you, Tony." He said, and Tony nodded.

"I'll miss you too. Our flight leaves tomorrow at 0700h. If you want to meet us at Dulles before we leave, you can. If you don't want to, I understand." He said, and their eyes met for a moment, "It was nice working with you, again." He gave a fake DiNozzo grin, and even though it was fake, Gibbs couldn't help but give a small smirk back. He walked towards him and Tony put out his hand to shake. Gibbs just stared down at it and then carefully pulled him into a hug. It lasted a couple of seconds, and then he pulled back, revealing a very confused and shocked Tony DiNozzo.

He backed away and then nodded, giving a small smile again before starting up the stairs. He stopped at the top one, and turned as he looked down at his boss, "Bye…Jethro."

He saluted him, "You be good. I'm…" he paused a moment, "Very proud of you, Anthony."

"Thanks." He smirked letting his eyes linger on his boss' blue ones for a moment before he finally left the basement. Once Gibbs heard the door click, he looked down at his watch. 02000h. He had 9 hours to convince Vance to let Tony have his job back.

For the team's sake, for his sake, but mostly for Ziva's sake. He couldn't stand to look at her beautiful face with that much despair evident again.

And he sure as hell wasn't taking no for an answer.

**Okay! So this is like the second to last chapter. The next chapter WILL be the last chapter. And you know that random medical file issue? Yeah. Wwwweeeellll....what was in that medical file? You know that? *whispers* it's coming back. In a SEQUEL?! *gasps* I know. Scary. So review, second to last chapter! Review review review and then I will write write write the last last last chapter!**

**Also, I will give you guys TWO hints for the 'finale' :) (since you all have been so good to me with the reviews and such):**

**1. You will find out the 'fate' of Lynn **

**2. There will be a cliffhanger bigger than the one in _Mistakes_...something that no one will EVER suspect. And you will hate me loads for it...especially when I determine how many days it will be before I start the sequel  
**

**QUOTE:**

"I want my senior field agent back, Leon! NOW!" -Gibbs


	15. Finale

Mossad Liaison Officer Ziva David stood in front of the metal door, composing herself. What did Director Vance want? At this hour? After a case? She needed to get home…she knew that it was Tony's last night here, and she wanted to…make the most of it.

"Miss David?" She heard Cynthia's voice, and she quickly turned around, staring into the eyes of the director's assistant, "Director Vance is waiting for you." She motioned to the door, and Ziva took another deep breath before she finally threw it open, walking in and silently closing the door behind her. She walked towards him and stood right in front of his desk, her arms behind her back in a military stance, preparing herself for whatever was going to come to her.

"Officer David." Vance spoke, and Ziva cringed. She remembered the last time he had addressed her by that; she had been going back to Israel. What did she do this time? Was it the incident with the car?

It was only then that she noticed that he wasn't going to say anything, "Director Vance?" She questioned, "I have arrived as expected."

"Yes, David, I was hoping that you could answer a couple of questions for me." She just stared down at him, and he then realized that it was his turn to speak up again, "What is your relationship with DiNozzo?" He saw her stiffen.

"Sir." She said, looking up at what was directly above his head, not actually at him. She blinked a couple of times, a little flustered by the question and a little angry at the same time, "I would like to know how this is relevant."

He nodded, pursing his lips together, "I forgot. I am just curious. I've noticed that your working habits have changed over the last couple of months, and suddenly they're up again. The only logical explanation is DiNozzo's presence."

She cocked her head to the side a little, nodding in the process, still not meeting his eyes, "Well," She started, "I do believe that that is none of your business. Unless my father has you spying on me as well." She scoffed, rolling her eyes as she looked around a little bit before moving her eyes back to their original position.

"No, no, Eli has not addressed any of these questions. Don't worry. It's just an observation."

She looked him straight in the eyes, "Yes. Well it is an observation that you need to keep to yourself, yes?" She demanded, "Tony is my partner. My _only _partner. Aside from what papa may have told you."

"Solely a working relationship…right?" He questioned, and she shifted her weight on her feet.

"Why do you ask that?" She demanded, "Why is my relationship with him so important to you? Another mole? Something else you fail to tell us about?" She scoffed, "If I were you, I would make sure to inform Gibbs this time." She gave a short, angry laugh.

"No mole David, just you and your partner. Now I'd answer the question if I were you." He leaned forward in his chair, his body pushed up against the desk, "Is your relationship with your partner a professional relationship?" She didn't answer, and Vance went in for the kill, "Are you intimate?" She again, didn't answer, she just ran her tongue on the inside of her mouth, her lips parting just slightly as she gave a small, yet barely audible laugh. He leaned back in his seat and rested one elbow on the arm rest, his head propped up against the one finger he extended from his hand, "Sexually active?" He asked as he raised an eyebrow, and that was it. She moved uncomfortably in one spot.

"This meeting is done." She shortly said before she started towards the door, turning quickly on her heel as she did so. She had her handle on the door, ready to turn when Vance spoke up, stopping her in her tracks.

"David you open that door I'm sending you back to Mossad." He picked up the phone as he stopped, "I'm sure Eli would love to find out about why his daughter got fired."

She tightened her grip on the knob and then let go, turning quickly around, barricading her back against the door, "What do you want?" She huffed out.

"Do you and Agent DiNozzo have a professional relationship?" He repeated, slowly this time, in case she missed it last time.

"Only in the office." She spat.

"So you're sexually active?"

"Yes. We are. What does it matter to you? You send me back to Israel, you send Tony away with a 'promotion', and now you are choosing who I sleep with?" She demanded, but he didn't answer, "I answered your questions. Interview. Over." She said as she started towards the door, muttering angry Hebrew under her breath as she slammed the door closed, storming past a shocked Cynthia, and then running out of the office. All she wanted to do was get home.

Tony would surely kill Vance, and it made her extremely happy knowing this fact was true.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Tony?" Ziva called as she entered her…his…._their_ apartment, closing the door and placing the key back into her pocket. She turned on the light and noticed that he wasn't there. She threw her coat down. She needed to be calmed down. Where was Tony when she needed him? Normally, when she needed to be calmed down, he could slowly undress her, pressing kisses up and down her entire body as he led her to the bedroom before they continued to make sweet love until the night ceased to exist. However, tonight, she didn't feel like she wanted any of that. Just to be held by him…that's all she needed.

She entered the bedroom and noticed that his clothes were still on the floor from yesterday, so she knew that he hadn't packed up yet.

_He probably just left to go to the hotel to get the rest of his stuff and check up on his team. Yes, that is it, Ziva. Calm down! _She commanded to herself as she turned around and started out of the bedroom. However, as she entered the pathway where the living room and the entrance met, the door opened and revealed Tony DiNozzo, slinking in, looking a little down.

"Tony?" She questioned, softly. He closed the door behind him and walked a couple of steps towards her after taking off his coat and carelessly throwing it on the floor behind him. Concern and sorrow was evident in his green eyes, and she took a careful step towards him before they both pulled each other into their own arms, hugging each other tightly. No words were needed as Ziva wrapped her arms around him, gripping his prominent shoulder blades as she turned her head into his neck. She breathed in his scent. His faint cologne, worn off from the rain, his normal amazing scent, and then…sawdust. _He had been with Gibbs. _She thought, and she held him tighter to her. She felt his warm cheek against the side of her head, his lips close to her ear. He wrapped his arms tighter around her body, crushing her up against him, placing a small kiss on her ear.

"Ziva…" he murmured, his voice sending shivers up and down her spine, causing Tony to hold her tighter against him. She finally pulled back, and they stared up into each others eyes. She tore his eyes off of his first and broke out of his embrace.

"We need to talk." She determined, her back turned to him, "Vance…he…"

"What?" He questioned, his voice soft though his insides were churning. She didn't answer, she just turned her head, and he walked towards her, "Ziva. What?"

"He questioned me." She softly said, yet her voice was rough.

"About what?"

"You..." She sighed, "Me...." She sighed again, "...Us." She let out the biggest sigh of all.

"And?" He prompted.

"And he knows that we're intimate, Tony." She said, catching his eyes for a moment over her shoulder before she took off towards the bedroom, unable to turn back around and see him. She took a seat on the bed.

Tony followed her into the bedroom and walked towards her, "So does Gibbs." He said, sitting down next to her, "He's known for a while." She turned to look at him and carefully lifted a finger up, brushing his hair lightly from his face. He subconsciously closed his eyes as she traced his jaw line, pressing one finger under his chin as she turned him towards her, "You are deeply troubled." She noted after searching his eyes. She tried to find the answer, but it just….wasn't there.

He looked down at her stomach and she followed his gaze, confused as to where it met. She looked up at him and then back down, still very confused. She suddenly saw his hand reach out towards her, and then it carefully brushed against her lower half. She jumped off of the bed, wrapping her arms subconsciously around her stomach, "What are you doing?" She demanded, and he looked up at her.

"I was just…" He suddenly grinned, "Are you ticklish?"

"No!" She shouted, "But that was not why you were touching me there. Why were you touching me?"

"I just thought…" He stood up and walked towards her, "Are you…" he started and then looked down. He placed his hands on her shoulders, looking deep into her eyes, "Are you…preg…"

"No." She firmly said, wiggling around so that she ripped her body away from his grip. She let her hands drop from her stomach and looked curiously up at him, "Why do you ask that?"

"I was just…just wondering."

"So what if I am Tony?" She demanded, turning towards him, fully.

"Is it mine?"

"Why do you care?" She challenged, taking a step towards him. They stood in silence for a moment, "Why do you ask if I am pregnant, Tony? Answer the question."

"I heard it. Around."

"From who?"

"Aaron and Scott."

"And who did they hear that from? Lynn?" She demanded, and he just looked down, finally realizing that she was right.

"Gibbs was right…" He muttered.

"Of course he was!" She threw her hands up in the air in annoyance, "You should always listen to Gibbs!" She motioned her hand towards him, "You told me to always listen to Gibbs because Gibbs knows! And Abby with the dark magic…yes?"

"Ziva, I knew that was stupid, but-"

"Then why did you believe it?"

"I don't know!" he admitted, throwing his hands up into the air.

"Because you wanted to believe it? You think that I would sleep around?" She demanded.

"No! Of course not!"

"Did _you _sleep around, Tony?" She questioned, taking another step towards him, "When you were in San Diego? Hmm?"

"I didn't sleep around, Ziva. I didn't even look at a woman with the thoughts of sleeping with her in my mind."

She scoffed and laughed, "I'm sure you didn't."

"I didn't!" He let his voice raise a little higher, for he was getting rather upset, "Ziva!"

"I am not like your mother, Tony." She muttered, and that made his blood run cold, "I did not sleep with other men. Everyone knows that. Even Jimmy knows that! You are not stupid enough to believe that, so why did you?"

"Because I was scared!"

"Of what? Tony DiNozzo…scared?" She scoffed, not believing it, "What were you afraid of?" She demanded, shouting now.

He opened his mouth to speak and then closed it quickly. They angrily stared at each other for a moment or two before Tony finally stopped and then stared deep into her eyes, the brown chocolate pools that he'd come to love and know like the back of his hand, "Never mind." He mumbled, "Doesn't matter now." He brushed past her, his shoulder knocking against hers. _How did this happen? We fight before I leave…and then again…I don't know how much more I can of take this. _He opened up the door and was about to step out when Ziva's hand caught his arm half-way.

"Tony." She firmly said as he spun back around to face her, their bodies standing in the door frame, Tony on one side, Ziva on the other.

"What?" he sighed, "Another lecture?"

She took a step towards him, "Only one that you should listen." She warned, "What were you going to say?"

"Does it matter?" He demanded, walking towards her, nothing between them now but the thin millimeters between their two desperate bodies.

"Do not do this Tony." She warned.

"Don't do what?" He demanded, "Because I'm pretty sure that no matter what I do, it won't change the current situation we are in, Ziva."

"Oh really?" She demanded, raising her voice, "I think that it would possibly change a lot, Tony! You want to know why?" She raised her voice.

"Yeah, I would, Ziva, instead of leaving me out in the dark!"

"You almost have _always _left me out in the dark, Tony! Remember Jeanne?"

He growled and Ziva watched his eyes grow dark, "Of course I do." He muttered through gritted teeth, "But we don't talk about her, remember?"

"You are having the same problem!"

"I am not on an undercover mission, Ziva!"

"Hiding from these feelings like a flowery boy!" She shouted, enraged now, why couldn't he just admit it?

"Cowardly." He corrected, closing his eyes just briefly in annoyance.

She slapped his arm, causing him to yelp, "Do not correct my English when I am yelling at you!" She shouted, stomping shortly.

"I don't want to yell at you, Ziva." He said, his voice low, his face close, "Not now. When I am leaving tomorrow morning. The case is closed. My team and I are going home."

"You are choosing to leave. Just like before." She whispered, looking down at his neck, refusing to meet his eyes.

"I didn't choose to leave last time."

"Yes you did! You chose the promotion, not me. Vance gave you a way out, and you took it."

"Don't bring him into this, Ziva. And before you bring him up again, let's remember who walked out on the other and who broke up with who? I took the logical path. I took the path that you chose. You did what was best for the team. So did I."

"Well it was not, yes?" She questioned.

He put his face dangerously close to hers, whispering almost silently in her ear, "You ever think that you didn't do what's best for the team…or _us_?" On the word 'us' another shiver was sent through her spine. She shuddered as his lips, tingling, pressed up against her cheek, "Goodbye, Ziva." He murmured, almost under his breath as he pulled back, stared into her eyes, and then left the apartment.

Ziva didn't know just how long she stood rooted in that position, almost as if his kiss had in fact planted her there, but when she finally gained control back of her body, she closed her eyes and slid her back down the frame, resting when she hit the ground. She leaned her head back and her heart thumped her in ears as the rain continued to beat down.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Director Vance definitely wasn't expecting anymore visitors that night, in fact, he was just ready to start packing up for the night when he suddenly heard his metal door slam into the wall and then slam shut.

He was sure it left a mark, and, for Agent Gibbs sake, he wasn't too happy. (Gibbs was though, of course.)

"Something I can help you with, Agent Gibbs?"

"My agent!" he demanded, slamming his hand down onto his desk, leaning in close, "Anthony. DiNozzo." He slammed his hand again, and then backed up, pacing angrily around the director's office.

"I talked to Officer David."

"And?" he asked, continuing to angrily pace.

"She admitted to having sexual affairs with DiNozzo."

"I knew that a long time ago, Leon. All I want is my damn agent back!"

He sighed and stared down at his desk, "They're leaving tomorrow."

"Delay the flight."

"What about the rest of the San Diego team?"

"Book them on another one. DiNozzo's not getting on." He demanded, telling Vance precisely what he wanted.

"I don't know, Gibbs…"

He growled angrily, throwing his hands up and then turning abruptly on him, "Hey!" He shouted, throwing him off guard, "I want my senior field agent back, Leon!" He paused for a moment, an then realized he had no effect on him, "NOW!" He demanded, "He's not getting on that damn flight, I don't care if I have to stop it myself!"

"You're going to kidnap a federal agent?"

"Yeah. And you lose DiNozzo, you lose me, Vance. And David. I would bet the entire damn agency on it!"

He pondered for a moment, and then made his decision as he looked Gibbs straight in his angry, icy blue eyes.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tony DiNozzo checked his team's bags in, flashed his badge at security, and then solemnly made his way towards where their plane was going to take off. He started to drag behind the team, which went unnoticed to them all except for Aaron, who watched his boss from afar as Scott and Lynn made it up front.

Tony turned around and stopped, suddenly, in the middle of the swarm of people rushing to their flights, most of them late, hoping they would catch it in mere seconds.

"Why didn't they come?" He muttered, "Why didn't Gibbs come to say goodbye to me?" He still felt horrible that he hadn't properly said goodbye to McGee or Ducky or Abby…just Gibbs. And…Ziva…but that _wasn't _an apology. Mostly…well he didn't know what that was besides a fight. A big, huge, blowup. And they had just gotten back to normal too… he sighed.

"Hey, Tony?" He felt Aaron tugging on his arm before shaking his shoulder, "You okay?" He asked.

"Yeah…yeah, fine." He muttered before he looked back one more time and then turning back around and slowly starting back towards his team.

"Come on, Tony, it'll be okay. On the bright side, the case is closed and it's about 80 degrees in San Diego! Wanna hit the pool when we get back? Or will you be jet-lagged?"

"Naw, no thanks." He waved it off before he heard someone calling his name.

He quickly turned around and stopped.

"Tony!" They called again. It was a woman. Aaron furrowed his eyebrows together and looked at his boss.

"Boss? You okay?" He questioned, and Tony stood on his tip-toes to see who was running towards him and calling his name. Suddenly, he was collided with a body against him and black hair thrown into his eyes.

"Abby." He breathed out, smiling a little. _Someone came! _He desperately thought, wrapping his arms around her. _At least someone cares. _

"Tony, Tony, Tony!" She sobbed, "You can't go! You just can't! You didn't even say goodbye to me, Tony! How could you do that? What about me? What about Ducky? And Gibbs? And McGee? And _Ziva?!" _She sobbed.

"Abby I love you but I…can't…breathe…"

"You said that so easily to her." He heard a familiar male voice mutter, and he turned to face his boss as Abby finally let go of him and he finally was able to breathe again. Abby held onto his arm and cried into his shoulder as his team finally stopped. A couple of patrons walking by just looked at them like they were crazy, but they didn't care.

"Boss I…"

"Save it." He gave a small smirk, and Tony took in the fact that his eyes were red and he was growing a small beard, almost like a five o'clock shadow.

"You stay up all night, boss?" He questioned, and Gibbs just put his hand on his shoulder, shaking it once, staring into his eyes.

"You didn't get much sleep either, DiNozzo."

"Yeah, but I had a reason. You don't have a reason."

He smirked again, "You really think I don't?" He asked and Tony rolled his eyes.

"Working on your boat is _not _a valid reason." He laughed a little.

"Well how about this?" He asked, and McGee walked out from behind him, grinning like a computer idiot.

"Uh? Boss? McGeek?"

"No, not McGee! McGee!" Gibbs scolded, looking behind him as if something was there.

"I'm gonna miss you, Tony." McGee patted his shoulder, but Tony ignored him.

"I'm confused, boss. What are you looking for?"

"Me." He heard a sweet Israeli voice sound from behind him, and his entire back stiffened as he turned around and saw a beautiful looking Ziva standing behind him, giving him a small closed smile. Her eyes, like his, were also slightly red. _She didn't get any sleep either…_ However, he did take in the fact that she was wearing her hair straight, unnaturally, and looked…amazing.

"Ziva." He acknowledged, "Look I'm…."

"Stop." She said, firmly, and then handed him a manila file. He didn't take it, he just looked down at it. She shook it once, "Take it."

"What is it?" He cautiously asked, and she rolled her eyes as Gibbs promptly whacked him on the back of the head, "Ouch!" He shouted, rubbing his sore spot as Ziva opened it up.

Tony stared down at the paper and then looked up in shock, "How did you…?"

"Do not ask." Ziva smirked, backing away as Gibbs stepped in.

"You belong to me now." Tony just grinned, sharing the grin over Gibbs shoulder at Ziva before he turned to Ziva.

"Take it and you are officially on Team Gibbs." McGee cut in, and Ziva held the folder out to him.

"Wait." Tony put his hands up, "Before I take my position as senior field agent back again, can I have one last moment with my team?" He asked, and they all shrugged and nodded. Gibbs patted Tony's back and pushed him towards his team, who were all looking at him with sad faces. Especially Lynn.

"You're going back to them?" Scott asked.

"You're not coming back." Aaron sighed, it was obvious that he didn't entirely like his decision, but he was willing to accept it, for the sake of Tony and their team, "But I understand why. You work better with them."

"It's not that I don't like you guys…" He said, putting an emphasis on 'guys', "But I'll come and visit you, trust me."

"Campfire hug?" Scott asked, holding his arms out. Aaron copied his movement, and so did Lynn.

"Aw, why not?" Tony grinned his famous DiNozzo smile before hugging his team. He let go after just seconds an then addressed them individually, "Agent Scott Lewis." He said, "You will go far in life. You're a good agent….as long as you stay clear of the pie table." He grinned, and Scott shared the same expression on his face.

"Thank you, sir, it was an honor working with you."

"Agent Aaron Davis." He turned to his good friend, "You're the best friend I had when I was away from my other friends. Keep in touch, will ya? You're a good agent, you're gonna be a hell of a team leader." Gibbs gave a smirk. He was proud of Tony. Gibbs watched Ziva, who was next to McGee and a bouncing Abby, very happy that Tony was coming back. Ziva noticed his eyes on her, and she turned, sharing a smirk and a wink with the boss before turning back to the scene.

He sighed as he turned to Lynn, "Lynn?" He questioned, "I'm gonna pull an Apprentice and act like Donald Trump right now." He adjusted his tie, "You're fired." He smiled, happy as can be as she dropped her mouth to the ground. Tony then turned back around, Ziva sending a happy smirk over Tony's shoulder at an angry Lynn's face before turning back to her partner.

He clapped his hands together and then turned to Gibbs, "Boss!" He outstretched his arms and then he tackled him into a hug, causing Gibbs to just grin and laugh a little. The force of Tony's hug, however, threw him back into a passerby, who dropped his papers and briefcase to the ground.

Tony immediately let go of Gibbs and bent down to help the man pick up his papers. He shoved the papers back into the folder and then went to stand back up when he dropped another one, "Excuse me…" He said, sincere. He picked up the paper and went to give the man back the papers, "Mister…" He read the name on the paper and then suddenly the entire world stopped, his heart skipped a beat. _It can't be..._ He read the paper again, two times, three times, and then he snapped his eyes up to the man's, "Anthony De Luca?" He looked around a bit, his eyes meeting Ziva's, and she understood immediately, her eyes growing wide as well. In shock and amazement, he uttered one word, "_Dad_?"

**THE END**


End file.
